An Evaluation of the POSSUM Score's Efficacy in Predicting the Outcome of Patients Undergoing a Laparotomy - A Study Protocol

Background: POSSUM Score is used to assess the outcome of complication, surgical intervention and the proportion between predicted and observed morbidity and mortality.Such scoring systems have been especially designed to compare patient’s severity of illness, predict mortality, morbidity and to plan an effective treatment protocol. Objectives: To assess applicability of POSSUM score (morbidity and mortality) in surgical practice in a tertiary care centre in a rural area. To assess utility of POSSUM score in clinical management. Methodology: The complications included in the study will be assessed in patients undergoing laparotomy during the hospital stay irrespective of the period of stay. The severity of these complications will be predicted using POSSUM score. The cases developing complications will be randomly selected to make a total participant size of 100. Results: At the end of the study, we expect easy applicability of POSSUM score in assessment of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing laparotomy. Conclusion: We hope that POSSUM score is an easy tool which can be applied to assess the morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing laparotomy.