ASA

To the Editor. —  I suppose you might be mildly annoyed to have your remarks attributed to the American Manufacturers Association. You will understand my annoyance at finding that your abstractor¹ has invented the American Standards Association as the authority for classification of Physical Status, instead of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, as properly attributed by Gluck et al.² Perhaps in calling their error to attention you will permit yet another correction. The ASA Physical Status is not an anesthetist's evaluation of risk but rather of global function. A patient with coronary artery disease would be assigned the same Physical Status for either a bunionectomy or bypass grafting. The risks of the operation obviously are different. The ASA Physical Status is a comprehensive and significant risk factor but so is the operation. Since sicker patients often require more dangerous surgery than healthy patients (a tautology I admit), Physical