Early identification of clinical deterioration in adult patients is essential for timely intervention, reducing healthcare costs, and ensuring patient safety.This paper reviews the concepts and assessment tools involved in clinical deterioration assessment for adult patients.Besides, this study conducts a comparative analysis of various types of clinical deterioration assessment tools, aiming to provide a reference for the development of localized assessment tools by combining nurses′ intuition or concern with indicators such as vital signs, thereby aiding in clinical risk identification and patient safety management.