Prediction of Postoperative ICU Requirement in Oncologic Surgery

This prospective observational cohort study aims to compare the performance of commonly used perioperative risk scoring systems in predicting postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) requirement among adult patients undergoing oncologic surgery. Accurate prediction of postoperative ICU admission is essential for optimizing patient safety and efficient allocation of limited critical care resources, particularly in high-risk oncologic surgical populations. A total of 500 adult patients scheduled for elective or emergency oncologic surgery will be prospectively enrolled at a single tertiary oncology center. Preoperative clinical and demographic data, intraoperative variables, and perioperative characteristics will be recorded using a standardized data collection form. Risk assessment will include the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status classification, Surgical Outcome Risk Tool (SORT), Age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (CACI), Portsmouth Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enumeration of Mortality and morbidity (P-POSSUM), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002), and preoperative serum albumin levels. The primary outcome is the need for postoperative ICU admission within the first 24 hours after surgery. Secondary outcomes include unplanned ICU admission, duration of ICU stay, need for mechanical ventilation, hospital length of stay, and 30-day mortality. The predictive performance of each scoring system will be evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and multivariable logistic regression models.