In the pre-hospital setting the early identification of septic shock (SS) patients presenting with a high risk of poor outcome remains a daily challenge. The development of a simple score to quickly identify these patients is essential to optimize triage towards the appropriate unit: emergency department (ED) or intensive care unit (ICU).

We report the association between the new SIGARC score and in-hospital, 30 and 90-day mortality of SS patients cared for in the pre-hospital setting by a mobile ICU (MICU).

SS patients cared for by a MICU between 2017, April 15th, and 2019, December 1st were included in this retrospective study. The SIGARC score consists of the addition of 5 following items (1 point for each one): shock index≥1, Glasgow coma scale<13, age > 65, respiratory rate > 22 and comorbidity defined by the presence of at least 2 underlying conditions among: hypertension, coronaropathy, chronic cardiac failure, chronic renal failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, history of cancer and human immunodeficiency virus infection. A threshold of SIGARC score ≥ 2 was arbitrarily chosen to define severity for its usefulness in clinical practice.

Data from 406 SS patients requiring MICU intervention in the pre-hospital setting were analysed. The mean age was 71 ± 15 years and 268 of the patients (66%) were male. The presumed origin of SS was pulmonary (42%), digestive (25%) or urinary (17%) infection. Overall in-hospital mortality was 31% with, 30 and 90-day mortality was respectively 28% and 33%. A prehospital SIGARC score ≥ 2 is associated with an increase in 30 and 90-day mortality with HR = 1.57 [1.02–2.42] and 1.82 [1.21–2.72], respectively.

A SIGARC score ≥ 2 is associated with an increase in in-hospital, 30 and 90-day mortality of SS patients cared for by a MICU in the prehospital setting. These observational results need to be confirmed by prospective studies.