[Apgar score: time to "call it"?] / De apgarscore: tijd om af te schaffen?

ABSTRACT

Virginia Apgar designed the apgar score during a breakfast with colleagues in response to a discussion about the need to evaluate newborns at birth. She scribbled down the score on a piece of paper and the score has been indispensable ever since, not just for reflecting the clinical condition and to indicate whether intervention was needed, but also to predict outcome. The reliability and validity have been often questioned, also in a recent study. Is it time to "call it" and send the score on retirement?