TY - JOUR A1 - Yakubu, Saidu A1 - Awwalu, Sani A1 - Dogara, Livingstone A1 - Waziri, Aliyu A1 - Ibrahim, Lawal A1 - Pindiga, Kasim A1 - Mamman, Aisha T1 - Can preoperative haemoglobin concentration and patients’ age predict American Society of Anesthesiologists’ scores? Y1 - 2018/7/1 JF - Sub-Saharan African Journal of Medicine JO - Sub-Saharan Afr J Med SP - 65 EP - 68 VL - 5 IS - 3 UR - https://www.ssajm.org/article.asp?issn=2384-5147;year=2018;volume=5;issue=3;spage=65;epage=68;aulast=Yakubu DO - 10.4103/ssajm.ssajm_22_18 N2 - Introduction The latest version of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score approved by the ASA House of Delegates in 2014 is used preoperatively to assess patients’ physical status (PS) before administration of anaesthesia and surgery. The ASA score does not take into consideration the patients’ age, gender or results of laboratory investigations. This study was to determine any relationship between preoperative haemoglobin (Hb) concentration, age and ASA scores. Materials and Methods Clinical records of 205 patients who had elective surgeries in a tertiary hospital for more than a period of six months were analysed for patients’ ages, gender, Hb concentrations and ASA scores, retrospectively. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20.0 with level of significance set at P ≤ 0.05. Results There were 205 patients who had surgeries during the period under review with females making up 110 (53.7%). The mean Hb and ages were 12.0 ± 1.7 g/dl and 32.2 ± 19.0 years, respectively. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) ASA-PS score was 2 (0). Most of the patients were anaemic (N = 105, 51.2%), whereas 12 (5.9%) were ≥65 years. The distribution of ASA-PS scores varied significantly across age categories (KWH statistic = 25.313, df = 4, P = <0.001). Post hoc analyses revealed that ≥65-year-olds had comparable ASA-PS scores to the ≤1 year category but higher scores compared to the 2–12-, 13–18- and 19–64-years categories. Anaemic patients had higher mean rank ASA-PS scores compared to those without anaemia (111.50 vs. 94.07, MWU statistic = 4357.000, P = 0.013). Spearman correlation analyses for ASA/Hb and ASA/age were ρ = –0.161, P = 0.021 and ρ = 0.257, P = <0.001, respectively. Multiple ordinal regression analyses to predict ASA-PS scores from Hb and age were negative with Hb (estimate = –0.261, P = 0.004) but positive with age (estimate = 0.036, P = <0.001). Conclusion Higher preoperative Hb is associated with lower ASA-PS score; older patients are more likely to have higher ASA-PS scores. ER -