Evaluation of the Validity of the Pediatric Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score in Critically Ill Children

IMPORTANCE: The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis- 3) utilizes the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score to predict life-threatening organ dysfunction and increased mortality in the adult population. The SOFA criteria is not applicable to the pediatric population as the SOFA variables do not adjusted for pediatric value norms. A Pediatric Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score (pSOFA) was created and verified in one study at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago which showed to be superior to other pediatric sepsis assessment tools, but the pSOFA score has …