Relationship of percutaneous tracheostomy timing with APACHE II and sofa scores on the first day of icu for critically ill patients

Objective: Our study aimed to assess the relation between APACHE II and SOFA scores of critically ill patients on their first day of admission and the timing of percutaneous dilatational tracheotomy (PDT). Methods: Following approval of the Ethics Board of Health Sciences University Istanbul Bağcılar Educational Research Hospital (25.08.2016-2016/495), data of all 91 patients who had been treated with PDT in the ICU between June 1, 2014 and June 1, 2016 have been retrospectively evaluated. We recorded the following information: demographical data (such as age, sex, body mass index) that could be obtained from patient records, APACHE II and SOFA scores on their first day in ICU, and PDT timing. Results: There was no statistically significant difference observed between the timing of the PDT and APACHE II and SOFA scores (p>0.05). Conclusion: Our results showed that most of the patients with PDT had an APACHE II score of 15-24. We noticed that the number of patients with an APACHE II score of 24 and higher was notably lower than the number of patients with scores between 15-24. The fact that the life expectancy for the patient group with a high APACHE II score is low may call the tracheostomy decision into question. On the other hand, no relation was found between differences in APACHE II and SOFA scores and the starting time of PDT.