[Trauma score and injury severity score in evaluation of the trauma patients: a preliminary report of 1000 cases].

It is important to evaluate trauma patients with a properly graded severity system in the emergency management of these patients. In this study the Trauma and the Injury Severity Scores based on the evaluation of trauma patients at the emergency services of Mackay Memorial Hospital and Taipei Medical College Hospital, and the mortality rate of these patients is analyzed. There was not a single mortality in patients with a Trauma Score of 15 or 16 and no survival in the patients with Trauma Scores under 11. Eighty-three of 1000 patients (8.3%) had a Trauma Score under 16, and hospitalization was necessary for most of them. All the 22 fatal cases had an Injury Severity Score greater than 24. The mortality rate was 70.6% for the patients with an Injury Severity Score greater than 30. This was the first trial in Taiwan to evaluate patients with the Trauma Score in the hope of aiding medical and paramedical staffs in the selection hospitals to which to transfer patients. All patients having a Trauma Score under 14 should be transferred to well-equipped trauma centers and those with a better score to other hospitals. The Injury Severity Score is nowadays used widely in the world to evaluate the severity and to predict the outcome of the patients. By comparing and utilizing these two grading systems, a more accurate evaluation of the trauma patients can be expected.