Patient fitness has been classified by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) as follows:
1. normal healthy patient
2. mild systemic disease
3. severe systemic disease that limits activity but is not incapacitating
4. incapacitating systemic disease; threat to life
5. moribund patient not expected to survive 24 hours with or without surgery
Groups 1 to 3 have no or little increased risk with normal anaesthesia.
It is important to note that none of these are an absolute contraindication to anaesthesia. Instead, they are ways of comparing the wellbeing of the patient with the importance of the procedure: the production of a risk-benefit concept for surgery and anaesthesia.
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