New Injury Severity Score is a better predictor of mortality for blunt trauma patients than the Injury Severity Score

Comparison of age-adjusted shock indices as predictors of injury severity in paediatric trauma patients immediately after emergency department triage: A report from the Korean multicentre registry

INTRODUCTION

Shock index paediatric-adjusted (SIPA) was presented for early prediction of mortality and trauma team activation in paediatric trauma patients. However, the derived cut-offs of normal vital signs were based on old references. We established alternative SIPAs based on the other commonly used references and compared their predictive values.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective review of all paediatric trauma patients aged 1-15 years in the Emergency Department (ED)-based Injury In-depth Surveillance (EDIIS) database from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2019. A total of 4 types of SIPA values were obtained based on the references as follows: uSIPA based on the Nelson textbook of paediatrics 21st ed., SIATLS based on the ATLS 10th guideline, SIPALS based on the PALS 2020 guideline, and SIPA. In each SIPA group, the cut-off was established by dividing the group into 4 subgroups: toddler (age 1-3), preschooler (age 4-6), schooler (age 7-12), and teenager (age 13-15). We performed an ROC analysis and calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) to compare the predicted values of each SIPA in mortality, ICU admission, and emergent surgery or intervention.

RESULTS

A total of 332,271 patients were included. The proportion of patients with an elevated shock index was 14.9 % (n = 49,347) in SIPA, 22.8 % (n = 75,850) in uSIPA, 0.3 % (n = 1058) in SIATLS, and 4.3 % (n = 14,168) in SIPALS. For mortality, uSIPA achieved the highest sensitivity (57.0 %; 95 % confidence interval 56.9 %-57.2 %) compared to SIPA (49.4 %, 95 % CI 49.2 %-49.5 %), SIATLS (25.5 %, 95 % CI 25.4 %-25.7 %), and SIPALS (43.8 %, 95 % CI 43.7 %-44.0 %), but there were no significant differences in the negative predictive value (NPV) or area under the curve (AUC). The positive predictive value (PPV) was highest in SIATLS (5.7 %, 95 % CI 5.6 %-5.8 %) compared to SIPA (0.2 %, 95 % CI 0.2 %-0.3 %), uSIPA (0.2 %, 95 % CI 0.2 %-0.2 %), and SIPALS (0.7 %, 95 % CI 0.7 %-0.8 %). The same findings were presented in ICU admission and emergent operation or intervention.

CONCLUSION

The ATLS-based shock index achieved the highest PPV and specificity compared to SIPA, uSIPA, and SIPALS for adverse outcomes in paediatric trauma.

Rendimiento de escalas de trauma ISS, NISS y RTS en accidentes de tránsito para predecir mortalidad en un hospital de alta complejidad

Introducción. La población mundial crece y con ello los accidentes de tránsito, incrementando la morbimortalidad. La combinación de factores clínicos y paraclínicos mediante las escalas de trauma impacta en los desenlaces al permitir tomar acciones oportunas. Métodos. Estudio de corte transversal en el que se incluyeron pacientes con lesiones por colisión en accidentes de tránsito, atendidos entre 2017 y 2018, en urgencias del Hospital Universitario San José de Popayán, Colombia, un hospital de alta complejidad. Se recolectaron variables sociodemográficas y biológicas y se aplicaron tres escalas de trauma, Revised Trauma Score, Injury Severity Score y New Injury Severity Score. Posteriormente, se evaluó su rendimiento para predecir mortalidad. Resultados. Se atendieron en el servicio de urgencias 650 pacientes con lesiones en accidentes de tránsito y se presentaron 16 muertes. Al evaluar el rendimiento de las escalas de trauma se encontró que la sensibilidad para mortalidad varía entre el 75 % para Revised Trauma Score y el 93,8 % para Injury Severity Score y New Injury Severity Score, con una especificidad que varía entre 89,1 % y 96,8 %. Se identificó que la mejor razón de verosimilitud positiva fue para Revised Trauma Score, mientras que la mejor razón de verosimilitud negativa fue para Injury Severity Score y New Injury Severity Score. Conclusiones. Los resultados evidencian un adecuado rendimiento de las escalas de trauma evaluadas para predecir mortalidad. La escala que presentó mejor rendimiento fue Injury Severity Score por su sensibilidad, especificidad y razón de verosimilitud positiva.

New injury severity score (NISS) outperforms injury severity score (ISS) in the evaluation of severe blunt trauma patients

PURPOSE

The injury severity score (ISS) and new injury severity score (NISS) have been widely used in trauma evaluation. However, which scoring system is better in trauma outcome prediction is still disputed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the value of the two scoring systems in predicting trauma outcomes, including mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and ICU length of stay.

METHODS

The data were collected retrospectively from three hospitals in Zhejiang province, China. The comparisons of NISS and ISS in predicting outcomes were performed by using receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves and Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics.

RESULTS

A total of 1825 blunt trauma patients were enrolled in our study. Finally, 1243 patients were admitted to ICU, and 215 patients died before discharge. The ISS and NISS were equivalent in predicting mortality (area under ORC curve [AUC]: 0.886 vs. 0.887, p = 0.9113). But for the patients with ISS ≥25, NISS showed better performance in predicting mortality. NISS was also significantly better than ISS in predicting ICU admission and prolonged ICU length of stay.

CONCLUSION

NISS outperforms ISS in predicting the outcomes for severe blunt trauma and can be an essential supplement of ISS. Considering the convenience of NISS in calculation, it is advantageous to promote NISS in China's primary hospitals.

Prediction of mortality in severely injured patients with facial bone fractures

PURPOSE

Identify the most common concomitant injuries associated with facial trauma, and compare the efficacy of various scoring systems in estimation of mortality risks in this category of patients.

METHODS

The study evaluated patients with facial and concomitant injuries, who received the multidisciplinary treatment in a specialized trauma hospital. Values of New Injury Severity Score, Glasgow Coma Scale, Facial Injury Severity Scale, age, and length of hospital stay were statistically analysed to determine presence of relationships between these indicators and define factors that significantly associated with lethal outcome.

RESULTS

During 6-year observation period, 719 patients were treated with multiple or combined maxillofacial trauma, brain injuries and polytrauma. Mainly with isolated midface bones (49.7%), pan-facial (34.6%), mandible (12.9%), and frontal bone and walls (2.8%) fractures. Mortality was (2.2%). The mortality rates in patients with severe pan-facial fractures were higher (p = 0.008) than in single anatomical area (6% vs 1.5%). Age, GCS, and NISS were the most reliable indicator of lethal outcome.

CONCLUSION

Age, Glasgow Coma Scale and New Injury Severity Score main factors, that predicts lethal outcome with high accuracy. New Injury Severity Score value ≥ 41 is a critical level for survival prognosis and should be considered in treatment planning and management of this category of patients.

A Motorcyclist-Injury Severity Analysis: A Comparison of Single-, Two-, and Multi-Vehicle Crashes Using Latent Class Ordered Probit Model

Motorcycle crashes increasingly become a high proportion of the overall motorized vehicle fatalities. However, limited research has been conducted to compare the injury severity of single-, two- and multi-vehicle crashes involving a motorcycle. This study aims to investigate the effects of rider characteristics, road conditions, pre-crash situations, and crash features on motorcycle severities with respect to different numbers of vehicles involved. The crash data used was obtained through a comprehensive Motorcycle Crash Causation Study (MCCS) by the Federal Highway Administration. An anatomic injury severity indicator, the New Injury Severity Score (NISS), is utilized to calculate a total score as the sum of squared the abbreviated injury scale scores of each of the rider's three most severe injuries. A hybrid approach integrating Latent Class Clustering (LCC) and Ordered Probit (OP) models was used to uncover the unobserved heterogeneity and to explore the major factors which significantly affect the injury severities resulting from single-, two- and multi-vehicle crashes involving a motorcycle. The results show that the significant differences in severity exist between different numbers of vehicles involved. More importantly, they also indicate dividing motorcycle crashes into homogeneous classes before modelling helps to discover insightful information. Pre-speed of the motorcycle is found to be a main factor associated with serious and critical injuries in most types of crashes. Findings of the study provide specific and insightful countermeasures targeting at the contributing factors of motorcycle crashes.

A Comparative Study Between Two Combat Injury Severity Scores

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, specific trauma scoring systems have been developed for military casualties. The objective of this study was to examine the discrepancies in severity scores of combat casualties between the Abbreviated Injury Scale 2005-Military (mAIS) and the Military Combat Injury Scale (MCIS) and a review of the current literature on the application of trauma scoring systems in the military setting.

METHODS

A cross-sectional, descriptive, and retrospective study was conducted between May 1, 2005, and December 31, 2014. The study population consisted of all combat casualties attended in the Spanish Role 2 deployed in Herat (Afghanistan). We used the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) as reference score. Severity of each injury was calculated according to mAIS and MCIS, respectively. The severity of each casualty was calculated according to the NISS based on the mAIS (Military New Injury Severity Score-mNISS) and MCIS (Military Combat Injury Scale-New Injury Severity Score-MCIS-NISS). Casualty severity were grouped by severity levels (mild-scores: 1-8, moderate-scores: 9-15, severe-scores: 16-24, and critical-scores: 25-75).

RESULTS

Nine hundred and eleven casualties were analyzed. Most were male (96.37%) with a median age of 27 years. Afghan patients comprised 71.13%. Air medevac was the main casualty transportation method (80.13). Explosion (64.76%) and gunshot wound (34.68%) mechanisms predominated. Overall mortality was 3.51%. Median mNISS and MCIS-NISS were similar in nonsurvivors (36 [IQR, 25-49] vs. [IQR, 25-48], respectively) but different in survivors, 9 (IQR, 4-17) vs. 5 (IQR, 2-13), respectively (P < .0001). The mNISS and MCIS-NISS were discordant in 34.35% (n = 313). Among cases with discordant severity scores, the median difference between mNISS and MCIS-NISS was 9 (IQR, 4-16); range, 1 to 57.

CONCLUSION

Our study findings suggest that discrepancies in injury severity levels may be observed in one in three of the casualties when using mNISS and MCIS-NISS.

Why do some trauma patients die while others survive? A matched-pair analysis based on data from Trauma Register DGU®

PURPOSE

The mortality rate for severely injured patients with the injury severity score (ISS) ≥16 has decreased in Germany. There is robust evidence that mortality is influenced not only by the acute trauma itself but also by physical health, age and sex. The aim of this study was to identify other possible influences on the mortality of severely injured patients.

METHODS

In a matched-pair analysis of data from Trauma Register DGU®, non-surviving patients from Germany between 2009 and 2014 with an ISS≥16 were compared with surviving matching partners. Matching was performed on the basis of age, sex, physical health, injury pattern, trauma mechanism, conscious state at the scene of the accident based on the Glasgow coma scale, and the presence of shock on arrival at the emergency room.

RESULTS

We matched two homogeneous groups, each of which consisted of 657 patients (535 male, average age 37 years). There was no significant difference in the vital parameters at the scene of the accident, the length of the pre-hospital phase, the type of transport (ground or air), pre-hospital fluid management and amounts, ISS, initial care level, the length of the emergency room stay, the care received at night or from on-call personnel during the weekend, the use of abdominal sonographic imaging, the type of X-ray imaging used, and the percentage of patients who developed sepsis. We found a significant difference in the new injury severity score, the frequency of multi-organ failure, hemoglobine at admission, base excess and international normalized ratio in the emergency room, the type of accident (fall or road traffic accident), the pre-hospital intubation rate, reanimation, in-hospital fluid management, the frequency of transfusion, tomography (whole-body computed tomography), and the necessity of emergency intervention.

CONCLUSION

Previously postulated factors such as the level of care and the length of the emergency room stay did not appear to have a significant influence in this study. Further studies should be conducted to analyse the identified factors with a view to optimising the treatment of severely injured patients. Our study shows that there are significant factors that can predict or influence the mortality of severely injured patients.

Mortality of trauma patients treated at trauma centers compared to non-trauma centers in Sweden: a retrospective study

Objective

The main objective was to compare the 30-day mortality rate of trauma patients treated at trauma centers as compared to non-trauma centers in Sweden. The secondary objective was to evaluate how injury severity influences the potential survival benefit of specialized care.

Methods

This retrospective study included 29,864 patients from the national Swedish Trauma Registry (SweTrau) during the period 2013–2017. Three sampling exclusion criteria were applied: (1) Injury Severity Score (ISS) of zero; (2) missing data in any variable of interest; (3) data falling outside realistic values and duplicate registrations. University hospitals were classified as trauma centers; other hospitals as non-trauma centers. Logistic regression was used to analyze the effect of trauma center care on mortality rate, while adjusting for other factors potentially affecting the risk of death.

Results

Treatment at a trauma center in Sweden was associated with a 41% lower adjusted 30-day mortality (odds ratio 0.59 [0.50–0.70], p < 0.0001) compared to non-trauma center care, considering all injured patients (ISS ≥ 1). The potential survival benefit increased substantially with higher injury severity, with up to > 70% mortality decrease for the most critically injured group (ISS ≥ 50).

Conclusions

There exists a potentially substantial survival benefit for trauma patients treated at trauma centers in Sweden, especially for the most severely injured. This study motivates a critical review and possible reorganization of the national trauma system, and further research to identify the characteristics of patients in most need of specialized care.

The reliability of the ICD-AIS map in identifying serious road traffic injuries from the Helsinki Trauma Registry

OBJECTIVE

The EU has recommended that its member countries compile statistics on the number of serious road traffic injuries. In Finland, the number of seriously injured road traffic patients is assessed using the International Classification of Diseases, 10^th Revision (ICD-10) and the automatic conversion tool (ICD-AIS map) developed by The Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). The aim of this study was to assess how reliably the ICD-AIS map identifies both serious injuries and seriously injured patients due to road traffic accidents.

METHODS

Data was derived from the Helsinki Trauma Registry (HTR) and included 215 severe (New Injury Severity Score >15) trauma patients injured in road traffic accidents from the years 2016 and 2017. The severity ratings of injuries (Abbreviated Injury Scale, AIS 3+) and patients (Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale, MAIS 3+) were determined by direct AIS coding of the HTR and were also generated by the ICD-AIS map based on ICD-10 injury codes. These two ratings were compared by injury mechanism and Injury Severity Score (ISS) body regions. The strength of agreement was described using Cohen's κ. The most common injury codes with errors in severity rating by the ICD-AIS map were presented.

RESULTS

The number of seriously injured patients by the ICD-AIS map was 21% lower, and the number of serious injuries was 36% lower than the corresponding numbers by direct coding. The exact agreement of the injury ratings was 72% (κ = 0.44, 95% CI 0.42-0.46). Most of the conversion errors were due to the simplicity of the ICD-10 codes used in Finland compared to those used in the ICD-AIS map (ICD-10-CM) and the missing codes from the ICD-AIS map. The most frequent misclassifications were due to multiple rib fractures, visceral organ injuries, some open fractures of extremities, and specific head injuries. Missing codes were most common in face, chest, and limb injuries.

CONCLUSIONS

The ICD-10 injury codes presently used in Finland should be more specific to permit reliable conversion results by the ICD-AIS map. The problem with missing codes should be considered more closely. When implementing the ICD-11, all detailed injury codes should be introduced.

Spectral analysis of heart rate variability for trauma outcome prediction: an analysis of 210 ICU multiple trauma patients

PURPOSE

This study aimed to test and compare short-term spectral HRV indices with most used trauma scorings in outcome prediction of multiple trauma, and then to explore the efficacy of their combined application.

METHODS

A prospective study was conducted for patients with blunt multiple trauma admitted to an emergency intensive care unit (ICU) between January 2016 and December 2017. Short-term spectral HRV indices on admission were measured, including normalized low-frequency power (nLF), normalized high-frequency power (nHF), and the nLF/nHF ratio. Injury severity score (ISS), new injury severity score (NISS), and revised trauma score (RTS) were evaluated for each patient, as well as probability of survival (Ps) by trauma and injury severity score (TRISS) model. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality and secondary outcomes were incidence of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and length of ICU stay.

RESULTS

Two hundred and ten patients were recruited. The nLF/nHF ratio, RTS, and Ps_(TRISS) were independent predictors of 30-day mortality, while nLF/nHF, NISS and RTS were independent predictors of MODS. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of nLF/nHF for 30-day mortality prediction was 0.924, comparable to RTS (0.951) and Ps_(TRISS) (0.892). AUC of nLF/nHF-RTS combination was 0.979, significantly greater than that of each alone. Combination of nLF/nHF and Ps_(TRISS) showed an increased AUC (0.984) compared to each of them. The nLF/nHF ratio presented a similar AUC (0.826) to NISS (0.818) or RTS (0.850) for MODS prediction. AUC of nLF/nHF-RTS combination was 0.884, significantly greater than that of nLF/nHF. Combination of nLF/nHF and NISS showed a greater AUC (0.868) than each alone. The nLF/nHF ratio, NISS, RTS, and Ps_(TRISS) were correlated with length of ICU stay for survivors, with correlation coefficients 0.476, 0.617, - 0.588, and - 0.539.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that the short-term spectral analysis of HRV might be a potential early tool to assess injury severity and predict outcome of multiple trauma. Combination of nLF/nHF and conventional trauma scores can provide more accuracy in outcome prediction of multiple trauma.

Lesiones graves y moderadas por accidentes de tránsito en mayores de 60 años. Medellín, Colombia

Introducción. Cada día, 3 400 personas mueren en el mundo por un accidente de tránsito (AT); miles sufren lesiones o adquieren una discapacidad cada año por la misma causa. En Colombia, en 2016 se registró una tasa de 92.8 heridos y 14.9 muertes por cada 100 000 habitantes.Objetivo. Describir las características de los AT y el entorno de su atención en mayores de 60 años con lesiones moderadas o graves en Medellín, Colombia, durante el periodo 2015-2016.Materiales y métodos. Estudio descriptivo de las características de personas mayores de 60 años con lesiones moderadas y graves después de un AT.Resultados. Se evaluaron 247 personas, 93.1% con lesiones moderadas; el 94.1% de las lesiones graves ocurrieron cuando se atropelló un peatón. En 60.7% de los AT una moto estuvo involucrada. El puntaje global del WHODAS-II fue de 40.6 y los dominios de funcionamiento más afectados fueron actividades domésticas, actividades fuera de la casa y movilidad; en cuanto a la calidad de vida, se afectó la función física, el desempeño físico y el cambio en salud.Conclusión. Los mayores de 60 años con lesiones por AT fueron, en su mayoría, peatones atropellados por motocicletas. El AT afectó la calidad de vida y el funcionamiento de los pacientes.

Clinical Outcome and Management for Geriatric Traumatic Injury: Analysis of 2688 Cases in the Emergency Department of a Teaching Hospital in Taiwan

Geriatric traumatic injuries in emergency departments are frequent and associated with higher mortality rates and catastrophic functional outcomes. Several prediction scores have been established to manage traumatic patients, including the shock index (SI), revised trauma score (RTS), injury severity score (ISS), trauma injury severity score (TRISS), and new injury severity score (NISS). However, it was necessary to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of care for the geriatric traumatic population. In addition, image studies such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging play an important role in early diagnosis and timely intervention. However, few studies focus on this aspect. The association between the benefit of carrying out more image studies and clinical outcomes remains unclear. In this study, we included a total of 2688 traumatic patients and analyzed the clinical outcomes and predicting factors in terms of geriatric trauma via pre-hospital and in-hospital analysis. Our evaluation revealed that a shock index ≥1 may be not a strong predictor of geriatric trauma due to the poor physical response in the aging population. This should be modified in geriatric patients. Other systems, like RTS, ISS, TRISS, and NISS, were significant in terms of predicting the clinical outcome.

The modified rapid emergency medicine score: A novel trauma triage tool to predict in-hospital mortality

BACKGROUND

Trauma systems currently rely on imperfect and subjective tools to prioritize responses and resources, thus there is a critical need to develop a more accurate trauma severity score. Our objective was to modify the Rapid Emergency Medicine (REMS) Score for the trauma population and test its accuracy as a predictor of in-hospital mortality when compared to other currently used scores, including the Revised Trauma Score (RTS), the Injury Severity Score (ISS), the "Mechanism, Glasgow Coma Scale, Age and Arterial Pressure" (MGAP) score, and the Shock Index (SI) score.

METHODS

The two-part study design involved both a modification step and a validation step. The first step incorporated a retrospective analysis of a local trauma database (3680 patients) where three components of REMS were modified to more accurately represent the trauma population. Using clinical judgment and goodness-of-fit tests, systolic blood pressure was substituted for mean arterial pressure, the weighting of age was reduced, and the weighting of Glasgow Coma Scale was increased. The second part comprised validating the new modified REMS (mREMS) score retrospectively on a U.S. National Trauma Databank (NTDB) that included 429,711 patients admitted with trauma in 2012. The discriminate power of mREMS was compared to other trauma scores using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) curve.

RESULTS

Overall the mREMS score with an AUC of 0.967 (95% CI: 0.963-0.971) was demonstrated to be higher than RTS (AUC 0.959 [95% CI: 0.955-0.964]), ISS (AUC 0.780 [95% CI 0.770-0.791]), MGAP (AUC 0.964 [95% CI: 0.959-0.968]), and SI (AUC 0.670 [95% CI: 0.650-0.690]) in predicting in-hospital mortality on the NTDB.

CONCLUSION

In the trauma population, mREMS is an accurate predictor of in-hospital mortality, outperforming other used scores. Simple and objective, mREMS may hold value in the pre-hospital and emergency department setting in order to guide trauma team responses.

Accuracy of prehospital triage protocols in selecting severely injured patients: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Prehospital trauma triage ensures proper transport of patients at risk of severe injury to hospitals with an appropriate corresponding level of trauma care. Incorrect triage results in undertriage and overtriage. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma recommends an undertriage rate below 5% and an overtriage rate below 50% for prehospital trauma triage protocols. To find the most accurate prehospital trauma triage protocol, a clear overview of all currently available protocols and corresponding outcomes is necessary.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the current literature on all available prehospital trauma triage protocols and determine accuracy of protocol-based triage quality in terms of sensitivity and specificity.

METHODS

A search of Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases was performed to identify all studies describing prehospital trauma triage protocols before November 2016. The search terms included "trauma," "trauma center," or "trauma system" combined with "triage," "undertriage," or "overtriage." All studies describing protocol-based triage quality were reviewed. To assess the quality of these type of studies, a new critical appraisal tool was developed.

RESULTS

In this review, 21 articles were included with numbers of patients ranging from 130 to over 1 million. Significant predictors for severe injury were: vital signs, suspicion of certain anatomic injuries, mechanism of injury, and age. Sensitivity ranged from 10% to 100%; specificity from 9% to 100%. Nearly all protocols had a low sensitivity, thereby failing to identify severely injured patients. Additionally, the critical appraisal showed poor quality of the majority of included studies.

CONCLUSION

This systematic review shows that nearly all protocols are incapable of identifying severely injured patients. Future studies of high methodological quality should be performed to improve prehospital trauma triage protocols.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Systematic review, level III.

Accuracy and Coverage of Diagnosis and Procedural Coding of Severely Injured Patients in the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register: Comparison to Patient Files and the Helsinki Trauma Registry

Background and Aims:

The Finnish Hospital Discharge Register data are frequently used for research purposes. The Finnish Hospital Discharge Register has shown excellent validity in single injuries or disease groups, but no studies have assessed patients with multiple trauma diagnoses. We aimed to evaluate the accuracy and coverage of the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register but at the same time validate the data of the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit.

Materials and Methods:

We assessed the accuracy and coverage of the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register data by comparing them to the original patient files and trauma registry files from the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit. We identified a baseline cohort of patients with severe thorax injury from the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit of 2013 (sample of 107 patients). We hypothesized that the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register would lack valuable information about these patients.

Results:

Using patient files, we identified 965 trauma diagnoses in these 107 patients. From the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register, we identified 632 (65.5%) diagnoses and from the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit, 924 (95.8%) diagnoses. A total of 170 (17.6%) trauma diagnoses were missing from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register data and 41 (4.2%) from the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit data. The coverage and accuracy of diagnoses in the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register were 65.5% (95% confidence interval: 62.5%–68.5%) and 73.8% (95% confidence interval: 70.4%–77.2%), respectively, and for the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit, 95.8% (95% confidence interval: 94.5%–97.0%) and 97.6% (95% confidence interval: 96.7%–98.6%), respectively. According to patient records, these patients were subjects in 249 operations. We identified 40 (16.1%) missing operation codes from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register and 19 (7.6%) from the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit.

Conclusion:

The validity of the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register data is unsatisfactory in terms of the accuracy and coverage of diagnoses in patients with multiple trauma diagnoses. Procedural codes provide greater accuracy. We found the coverage and accuracy of the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit to be excellent. Therefore, a special trauma registry, such as the trauma registry of the Helsinki University Hospital’s Trauma Unit, provides much more accurate data and should be the preferred registry when extracting data for research or for administrative use, such as resource prioritizing.

Systematic review and need assessment of pediatric trauma outcome benchmarking tools for low-resource settings

INTRODUCTION

Trauma is a leading cause of mortality and disability in children worldwide. The World Health Organization reports that 95% of all childhood injury deaths occur in Low-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). Injury scores have been developed to facilitate risk stratification, clinical decision making, and research. Trauma registries in LMIC depend on adapted trauma scores that do not rely on investigations that require unavailable material or human resources. We sought to review and assess the existing trauma scores used in pediatric patients. Our objective is to determine their wideness of use, validity, setting of use, outcome measures, and criticisms. We believe that there is a need for an adapted trauma score developed specifically for pediatric patients in low-resource settings.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify and compare existing injury scores used in pediatric patients. We constructed a search strategy in collaboration with a senior hospital librarian. Multiple databases were searched, including Embase, Medline, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Articles were selected based on predefined inclusion criteria by two reviewers and underwent qualitative analysis.

RESULTS

The scores identified are suboptimal for use in pediatric patients in low-resource settings due to various factors, including reliance on precise anatomic diagnosis, physiologic parameters maladapted to pediatric patients, or laboratory data with inconsistent accessibility in LMIC.

CONCLUSION

An important gap exists in our ability to simply and reliably estimate injury severity in pediatric patients and predict their associated probability of outcomes in settings, where resources are limited. An ideal score should be easy to calculate using point-of-care data that are readily available in LMIC, and can be easily adapted to the specific physiologic variations of different age groups.

Analysis of Shahid Rajaee hospital administrative data on injuries resulting from car accidents in Shiraz, Iran: 2011-2014 data

PURPOSE

The administrative data from trauma centers could serve as potential sources of invaluable information while studying epidemiologic features of car accidents. In this cross-sectional analysis of Shahid Rajaee hospital administrative data, we aimed to evaluate patients injured in car accidents in terms of age, gender, injury severity, injured body regions and hospitalization outcome in the recent four years (2011-2014).

METHODS

The hospital registry was accessed at Shiraz Trauma Research Center (Shiraz, Iran) and the admission's unit data were merged with the information gathered upon discharge. A total number of 27,222 car accident patients aged over 15 years with International Classification of Diseases 10th revision (ICD-10) external causes of injury codes (V40.9-V49.9) were analyzed. Injury severity score and injured body regions were determined based on converting ICD-10 injury codes to Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS-98) severity codes using a domestically developed electronic algorithm. A binary logistic regression model was applied to the data to examine the contribution of all independent variables to in-hospital mortality.

RESULTS

Men accounted for 68.9% of the injuries and the male to female ratio was 2.2:1. The age of the studied population was (34 ± 15) years, with more than 77.2% of the population located in the 15-45 years old age group. Head and neck was the most commonly injured body region (39.0%) followed by extremities (27.2%). Injury severity score (ISS) was calculated for 13,152 (48.3%) patients, of whom, 80.9% had severity scores less than 9. There were 332 patients (1.2%) admitted to the intensive care units and 422 in-hospital fatalities (1.5%) were recorded during the study period. Age above 65 years [OR = 7.4, 95% CI (5.0-10.9)], ISS above 16 [OR = 9.1, 95% CI (5.5-14.9)], sustaining a thoracic injury [OR = 7.4, 95% CI (4.6-11.9)] and head injury [OR = 4.9, 95% CI (3.1-7.6)] were the most important independent predictors of death following car accidents.

CONCLUSION

Hospital administrative databases of this hospital could be used as reliable sources of information in providing epidemiologic reports of car accidents in terms of severity and outcomes. Improving the quality of recordings at hospital databases is an important initial step towards more comprehensive injury surveillance in Fars, Iran.

Outcome after red trauma alarm at an urban Swedish hospital: implications for prevention

AIMS

We applied the new injury severity scoring system and studied mechanisms of injury and risk factors for mortality, in order to find potential preventive measures, in the present Scandinavian trauma cohort triaged through red trauma alarm according to the Medical Emergency Triage and Treatment System.

METHODS

Individuals were identified in hospital and forensic records. New injury severity scoring system >15 was defined as major trauma. Inter-rater reliability of new injury severity scoring system was expressed as intra-class correlation coefficient with 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

There were 125 major and 303 minor traumas. The intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.83 (95% confidence intervals 0.58-0.94) for major trauma and intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.96 (95% confidence intervals 0.89-0.98) for minor trauma. Traffic (37%) and fall (31%) accidents were the leading mechanisms of injury. Elderly (aged ⩾65 years) were at an increased risk of fall accidents (p<0.001). The overall 3 month mortality rate was 10.3% (2% for new injury severity scoring system 16-24, 39% for new injury severity scoring system 25-40 and 68% for new injury severity scoring system >40). A higher new injury severity scoring system score (p<0.001), higher age (p<0.001), shock at admission (p<0.001), intensive care unit stay (p<0.004) and administration of massive red blood cell transfusion (p<0.048) were associated with mortality. Thirty-three patients underwent forensic autopsy and were tested positive for one or multiple drugs in 52% and 33%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The high prevalence of detected drugs among those undergoing forensic toxicological examination suggests that toxicology screening should be integrated into all red trauma alarm admissions, which may have implications on prevention of future trauma morbidity and mortality.