The prognostic importance of trauma scoring systems in pediatric patients

Purpose  Traumas are among important causes of morbidity and mortality in the pediatric group. Our aim was to evaluate the predicting effects of general trauma scores on mortality and morbidity rates. Methods  The files of 74 patients, who were admitted to our hospital with trauma between the years 2006 and 2008, were retrospectively investigated. Patients’ ages, sex, types of trauma, the time between the trauma and entrance to the hospital, vital and laboratory findings, length of hospital stay, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, surgical interventions, the organs affected by the trauma, morbidity, and mortality rates were recorded., glasgow coma scale (GCS), abbreviated injury scale (AIS), trauma score—injury severity score (TRISS), revised trauma score (RTS), injury severity score (ISS), pediatric trauma score (PTS), specific trauma scores for lung, liver, and spleen were calculated using the data in the files. Results  The mean age of patients was 7.0 ± 4.34 (1–16) years and 50% of them were men. The types of the trauma were blunt in 66 (89.2%) patients, penetrating in 5 (6.8%) patients and injury due to gun shot in 3 (4.1%) patients. The mean time between the trauma and entrance to the emergency service was 80.40 ± 36.67 (10–120) min. Emergency operation and elective surgery was performed in 13 (17%) and 20 (27%) patients, respectively. The mean length of hospitalization was 4.50 ± 7.93 (1–35) days.Seven (9.5%) patients needed ICU. The morbidity and mortality rates were 60.8% (n = 45) and 2.7% (n = 2), respectively. AIS, ISS, TRISS and PTS were independent predictors of morbidity (p < 0.05). AIS and ISS were independent predictors of the length of hospital stay (p < 0.05). RTS, TRISS, ISS and PTS were independent predictors of the need for ICU (p < 0.05). Among laboratory findings, blood glucose, AST and ALT were found to be independent predictors of liver trauma. Conclusion  ISS was found to be more valuable than other trauma scoring systems for prognostic evaluation of pediatric trauma patients. On the other hand, blood glucose, AST, and ALT are easily available, cheap, and valuable alternative laboratory findings in prognostic evaluation.