Rapid Emergency Medicine Score as a main predictor of mortality in Vibrio vulnificus-related patients.

OBJECTIVES

Vibrio vulnificus causes potentially life-threatening and rapidly progressing infections. Therefore, the severity-of-illness assessment appears to be important for V vulnificus-infected patients at the time of admission. The aim of our study was to evaluate the performance of the severity-of-illness scoring model on admission in V vulnificus-infected patients.

METHODS

One hundred seventy-one consecutive patients (mean age: 63.1 ± 12.3 years) with V vulnificus infection who were admitted to a teaching hospital between January 1999 and June 2010 were included in the study. Demographic and clinical characteristics, illness severity on admission, treatment, and outcomes were collected for each patient and extracted for analysis. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were performed.

RESULTS

The mean Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS) on admission was 6.5 ± 3.0 points. During hospitalization, 68 patients (40%) required intensive care. The overall case-fatality rate was 25%. In multivariate analysis, the presence of underlying liver disease (P = .002), hemorrhagic bullous lesions/necrotizing fasciitis (P = .012), and higher REMS values on admission (P < .0001) were associated with increased mortality risk; a time span <24 hours between arrival and surgical treatment was associated with a decreased mortality risk (P = .007). Additionally, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the REMS in predicting mortality risk was 0.895 (P < .0001). An optimal cut-off REMS ≥8 had a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 85%, with a 26.6-fold mortality risk (P < .0001) and a 12.5-fold intensive care unit admission risk (P < .0001).

CONCLUSION

The REMS could provide clinicians with an effective adjunct risk stratification tool for V vulnificus-infected patients.