The Phoenix Criteria and Other Severity Scores in Identifying Pediatric Sepsis

Can the Phoenix criteria identify children with suspected or confirmed infection who are at risk of death across the entire hospital setting?In this cohort study of 140 633 pediatric patients with presumed infections treated in Hong Kong public hospitals, 5.4% of children met the Phoenix-8 criteria for sepsis and had significantly higher in-hospital mortality than patients with uncomplicated infection. Despite its limitations in data completeness, the Phoenix-8 severity score effectively distinguished patients at risk of death in hospital wards and pediatric intensive care units.The findings of this study support the generalizability of the Phoenix criteria across the full spectrum of inpatient care for identification of pediatric sepsis across international settings.

Corresponding Author: Lowell Ling, MBBS, MPhil, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 4/F Main Clinical Block and Trauma Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China (lowell.ling@cuhk.edu.hk).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.