Many different methods for assessing injury severity have appeared in the literature. This paper discusses the commonly used measures, many of which are subjective and depend on clinical practice or sociological factors. Even if apparently objective measures are used their appropriateness for use in children is questionable. Particular problems occur with scoring or categorising events such as ...

OBJECTIVES To identify the conditions at certain sites on slopes known as black spots for injury. METHOD In the Hafjell and Voss alpine ski areas in Norway, 1410 skiing injuries were recorded from December 1990 through the 1996 season. In Hafjell, 183 of these injuries were plotted on an area map during the two first seasons. Similarly, in Voss, 214 injuries were plotted on an area map for tw...

Ensuring adequate vascular access in major trauma patients prior to decompensative physiological processes is crucial to patient outcomes. Most protocols suggest achieving two 18-gauge or larger intravenous lines immediately in patients with major trauma. We discuss a quality improvement approach to ensure that >90% of patients with major trauma (as defined by an injury severity score ≥12) at a...

BACKGROUND Circulating levels of cell-free DNA increase in many pathologic conditions. However, notable discrepancies in the quantitative analysis of cell-free DNA from a large number of laboratories have become a considerable pitfall, hampering its clinical application. METHODS We designed a novel recombinant DNA fragment that could be applied as an internal standard in a newly developed and...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common cause of acquired disability during childhood. While much is now known about outcome following TBI in the school-aged population, recovery in infants and young children is less well documented. The aim of this study was to examine neurobehavioural function following TBI during early childhood, to plot recovery over the 30 months post-injury and to identi...

This study aimed to describe the severity of injury (RTI), length of stay, costs, financial burden, and sources of payment for RTI patients in the Kunming area, Yunnan Province, China. Information was collected from interviewing 420 patients admitted with RTI during January to May 2005 and from medical records reviewed of all the patients admitted from January to 30 May 2005. The costs and fina...

The article is a bibliographic review which intends to present the actual range of researches comparing the Injury Severity Score (ISS) and the New Injury Severity Score (NISS). Databases were searched using the keyword NISS, with 42 articles, 23 of which didn't compare the two indexes. Most part of the 19 selected articles showed that NISS has been more accurate in predicting the outcomes (dep...

BACKGROUND To assess the pattern of mass casualty incidents managed at our hospital over the last eight years, and evolve a differentiating classification based on this pattern. A combination of retrospective and prospective assessment was made. MATERIAL AND METHODS All patients receiving injuries in mass casualty incidents and managed at our hospital. Patients with an injury severity score a...

This paper examines NASS/CDS 1995 to 2001 in order to evaluate rollover crash severity metrics and to recommend additional data elements to assist in determining rollover severity. For belted occupants and unbelted ejected occupants in single vehicle crashes, the number of roof impacts is an appropriate severity indicator. For ejected occupants, the ejection risk generally increases with the nu...

BACKGROUND Depression is one of the most frequently reported psychological problems following TBI, however prevalence estimates vary widely. Methodological and sampling differences may explain some of this variability, but it is not known to what extent. METHODS Data from 99 studies examining the prevalence of clinically diagnosed depression (MDD/dysthymia) and self-reports of depression (cli...