SynthesisAnnals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England2021
Waterlow score for risk assessment in surgical patients: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predictive accuracy of surgeon gestalt for adverse postoperative outcomes: systematic review.The British journal of surgery · 2025Pooled it
- Improving Outcomes: Early Nursing Functional Evaluation of Patients with Intracranial Aneurysms After Surgery-Preliminary Results.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- The accuracy of the risk assessment scale for pressure ulcers in adult surgical patients: a network meta-analysis.BMC surgery · 2025Article
- Comparing the Waterlow and Jackson/Cubbin pressure injury risk scales in intensive care units: A multi-centre study.International wound journal · 2024Article
- The Risk Factors for New-Onset Calf Muscle Venous Thrombosis after Hip Fracture Surgery.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Article
- Incidence of cervical collar-related pressure injury in patients with head and neck trauma: A scoping review study.Journal of education and health promotion · 2023Article
- Pre-operative Waterlow score and outcomes after kidney transplantation.BMC nephrology · 2022Observational
- Quantitative analysis of heart rate variability parameter and mental stress index.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe Waterlow score (WS) is used routinely in clinical practice to assess risk of pressure sore development. Recent studies have also suggested its use in preoperative risk stratification. The primary aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the current evidence on the WS in predicting morbidity and mortality in surgical patients.
methodsA systematic review was carried out in accordance with PRISMA and SWiM guidelines. A search strategy was conducted on the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. Quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.
findingsOverall, 72 papers were identified, of which 7 met inclusion criteria for full text review, and 4 were included for analysis. All studies were cohort in nature and published between 2013 and 2016, encompassing a total of 505 surgical patients. The studies included general, vascular, transplant and orthopaedic surgery. A high WS was demonstrated to have statistically significant association with increased morbidity and mortality as well as need for intensive care unit admission and length of stay. Furthermore, this was a more accurate predictor compared with the P-POSSUM and ASA scoring systems used currently in routine practice.
conclusionsThe WS is a promising tool for risk stratification of surgical patients. It is already collected routinely by nursing staff throughout hospitals in the UK and would therefore be easy to implement. However, further large prospective studies are required in order to validate these findings prior to its establishment for this role in everyday surgical practice.
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