ASA Provides Examples to Each ASA Physical Status Class

For more than 50 years, anesthesiologists have used the ASA Physical Status Classification System (ASA PS) to describe a patient’s preoperative and comorbid conditions. The original classification system proposed by Drs. Saklad, Rovensteine and Taylor in 1941 incorporated some examples of the clinical conditions for each physical status level to guide the assignment of a patient’s status.¹  The system was subsequently modified by Dripps²  and adopted by ASA in 1962. Unlike the original system, this ASA classification system did not include any examples of each class. The system has become an integral part of the practice of anesthesiology and is used by anesthesiologists, surgeons and others to characterize patient populations in general and the preoperative medical conditions that might influence anesthetic management specifically. While there is some evidence to demonstrate uniformity in the assignment of the ASA PS level, a number of published studies have documented considerable lack...