Objectives: To test if the surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score predicts mortality and intensive care unit and hospital length of stay.
Design: Prospective single-center cohort study.
Setting: Surgical intensive care unit of the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Patients: One hundred thirteen consecutive patients admitted to the surgical intensive care unit.
Investigations: We tested the hypotheses that the surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score independent of comorbidity index, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II, creatinine, hypotension, hypernatremia, acidosis, hypoxia, and hypercarbia predicts hospital mortality, surgical intensive care unit and total hospital length of stay.
Measurements and main results: Two nurses independently predicted the patients' mobilization capacity by using the surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score the morning after admission, whereas a third nurse recorded the achieved mobilization levels of patients at the end of the day. A multidisciplinary expert team measured patients' grip strength and assessed their predicted mobilization capacity independently. Multivariate analysis revealed that the surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score was the only independent predictor of mortality. Surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score, hypotension, and hypernatremia (>144 mmol/L) independently predicted intensive care unit length of stay, whereas the surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score and hypernatremia predicted total hospital length of stay. The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score was not identified in the multivariate analysis. The surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score was also a reliable and valid instrument in predicting achieved mobilization levels of patients.
Conclusions: In surgical critically ill patients presenting without preexisting impairment of functional mobility, the surgical intensive care unit optimal mobility score is a reliable and valid tool to predict mortality and intensive care unit and hospital length of stay.