The Functional Capacity Index, second revision: morbidity in the first year post injury

As the field of injury outcomes measurement has moved beyond counting deaths and injuries, the need for instruments to measure long-term outcomes has increased. Early validation efforts indicated that the Functional Capacity Index (pFCI12) was a promising tool for predicting functional loss 12 months post trauma, but that the predictive validity for lower extremity fractures was low. The pFCI12 was recently revised in conjunction with the 2005 revision of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). This preliminary study was undertaken to assess the performance of the revised pFCI12 in predicting outcomes for patients with lower extremity trauma. This case review study used the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Research (CIREN) database which includes AIS codes, extensive clinical data and 3- and 12-month outcomes. Generally predicted functional loss at 12 months was greater with the pFCI12 (AIS 2005) than with the original FCI based on AIS 1990. All patients whose pFCI12 scores predicted functional loss experienced some morbidity at 1 year. The pFCI12 appears to provide improved predictions of functional outcome 12-months post-trauma for persons experiencing lower extremity trauma.