Ranson Criteria

Excerpt

The original Ranson criteria is a scoring system that uses 11 parameters to assess the severity of acute pancreatitis. The 11 parameters are age, white blood cell count (WBC), blood glucose, serum aspartate transaminase (AST), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), serum calcium, fall in hematocrit, arterial oxygen (PaO2), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), base deficit, and sequestration of fluids.

The criteria are named after Dr. John Ranson, a surgeon and leading figure on the pancreas during the 20th century. Dr. Ranson introduced the criteria in his 1974 paper, Prognostic Signs and the Role of Operative Management in Acute Pancreatitis. The study had a population of 100 patients with acute pancreatitis. Eleven objective findings were determined to be of significant prognostic value for predicting severe acute pancreatitis. These objective findings are the 11 abovementioned parameters that comprise the Ranson criteria. It should be noted that there is also a modified Ranson criterion. The criteria with 11 parameters are used to score alcoholic pancreatitis, while the modified criteria have 10 parameters used to score gallbladder pancreatitis.

Ranson criteria are one of the earliest scoring systems to assess the severity of acute pancreatitis and continue to be widely used. Since its inception, at least 17 other scoring systems have been validated. The most widely used clinical prognostic scores include the Ranson criteria, Glasgow prognostic criteria, the APACHE II classification system, and the Balthazar CT-enhanced scoring system.