Review of the Sequential or Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment Score

The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score is a validated clinical tool, created in 1996, which is still commonly used in the ICU setting. It is utilized to assess the severity of organ dysfunction in patients with sepsis, especially those with evidence of hypoperfusion at the time of presentation in the emergency department. The SOFA score quantifies the extent of organ dysfunction across six organ systems: respiratory, coagulation, hepatic, cardiovascular, neurological, and renal. Each system is graded 0 (normal function) to 4 (most dysfunction) resulting in a total score from 0 to 24. The SOFA score is designed to be calculated every 24 hours and is used to track organ dysfunction in both the adult and pediatric populations. Using daily calculations, the score can also be used to predict in-hospital mortality.