The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status (PS) Classification is a six-category system for assessing a patient’s pre-anesthesia medical condition. It is not a surgical risk scale by itself, but rather a simple categorization of overall health and comorbidities

Why this matters for ICU/anesthesia? Critical care patients often receive continuous infusions or high doses of drugs (for sedation, analgesia, hemodynamic support, etc.), and organ dysfunction or extracorporeal support can alter drug clearance. Understanding whether a drug’s elimination is linear (dose-proportional) or prone to saturation is crucial. Saturable (non-linear) kinetics can lead to unexpected drug accumulation, necessitating closer monitoring or dose adjustments.

Comprehensive clinical guide to therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), covering indications, modality selection, dosing strategies, replacement fluids, anticoagulation, monitoring, and complication management across critical care settings.