ASA (aspirin)
ASA is shorthand for aspirin, from its chemical name acetylsalicylic acid. In an anaesthesia record, ASA followed by a Roman numeral is something else: a physical status class of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
How to read it
Charleston Area Medical Center and North Carolina’s EMS services list ASA as aspirin; the Central California EMS Agency and California Correctional Health Care Services list it as acetylsalicylic acid. PubChem, the National Library of Medicine’s chemistry database, gives aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid and ASA as names for the same compound.
Also searched as: acetylsalicylic acid abbreviation, asa aspirin, asa meaning, asa medical abbreviation.
These pages explain what medical abbreviations and symbols stand for. They are not medical advice and give no doses: a pharmacist or prescriber can explain what any label means for you.
ASA I to ASA VI
Before an operation, an anaesthesiologist may record a class such as “ASA II”, with an E added for emergency surgery. This is the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Physical Status Classification System, which the society says is used “to assess and communicate a patient’s pre-anesthesia medical co-morbidities”. It runs from ASA I, “a normal healthy patient”, to ASA VI, a declared brain-dead organ donor. Here ASA is the society’s initials and has nothing to do with aspirin.
Drug names on the error-prone list
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) recommends writing drug names out in full: its list of error-prone abbreviations says “do not abbreviate drug names when communicating medical information”. ASA is not among the examples it gives, which include APAP for acetaminophen. PCN for penicillin falls under the same recommendation.
More medical chart abbreviations
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Abbreviations Approved for Medical Records, Charleston Area Medical Center, A
- Approved Medical Abbreviations, Appendix G, revised 15 October 2023, North Carolina College of Emergency Physicians, via the North Carolina Office of EMS, A
- Accepted Abbreviations List, CCEMSA policies and procedures, general, Central California EMS Agency (Fresno County Department of Public Health), A
- Approved Abbreviations, Clinical 2022, Health Care Department Operations Manual, California Correctional Health Care Services, A
- Aspirin (PubChem compound summary, CID 2244): synonyms, PubChem, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Synonyms
- Statement on ASA Physical Status Classification System, Last amended 13 December 2020 (original approval 15 October 2014), American Society of Anesthesiologists, Current definitions
- ISMP's List of Error-Prone Abbreviations, Symbols, and Dose Designations, 2015 edition, Institute for Safe Medication Practices, Drug name abbreviations
Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research