Making the invisible visible: an anatomy of surgical struggle

"Standard intraoperative vital signs provide a sense of stability that masks true physiological distress; we hypothesize that a unified Physiological Support Score (PSS), synthesizing fluids, blood, and vasopressors, reveals a hidden spectrum of managed struggle that shifts markedly with different surgical choices."

Patient A
Heart Rate: ~78 bpm | PSS: 0.09 (Low burden)
Patient B
Heart Rate: ~79 bpm | PSS: 0.82 (High burden)
Click to learn how we measure this →

The logic: Turning incomparable units into a single truth

The Physiological Support Score
$$\text{PSS} = \frac{\text{Norm}(\log(\text{Fluids})) + \text{Norm}(\log(\text{Vaso})) + \text{Norm}(\log(\text{Blood}))}{3}$$
Log-transformation: Tames high variance of fluid volumes.
Normalization: Maps every variable to 0–1 scale.
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Results: Mapping physiological burden across surgical choices

Takeaway message


Standard monitoring indicates whether the patient is stable; this score indicates how much it cost to keep them that way.