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Design and Validation of a Practical Index for Trauma Assessment
Author(s) -
GUZMAN N.,
PAZ M.X.,
PAZ M.I.,
MORENO N.R.,
NINO F.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1989.tb00705.x
Subject(s) - concordance , reliability (semiconductor) , triage , medical emergency , occupational safety and health , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , medicine , injury prevention , suicide prevention , index (typography) , computer science , pathology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , world wide web
In the past 20 years a variety of indices have been suggested for measuring the severity of trauma, however none of them meets the requirement of being a simple and objective instrument that can be utilized efficiently by lay persons and providers of health services without previous experience in triaging. A new system has been proposed which meets this requirement and which has been validated with 197 injured persons at the emergency ward of the Valle University Hospital in Call, Colombia. The instrument showed a high level of concordance with the conventional triaging method and classifies victims into four categories: critical with recovery unlikely, critical but recoverable, moderately serious, and ambulatory. There is discussion on the reliability of this instrument and it is recommended that it be validated with victims from larger disasters. Regardless, it has the advantage of being specific and free of the subjectivity that characterizes other indices.