Severity of trauma victims admitted in intensive care units: comparative study among different indexes

This study compared the performance of the Injury Severity Score (ISS) with the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) and also the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) with the Logistic Organ Dysfunction System (LODS) in trauma victims, in order to predict mortality and length of stay in Intensive Care Units (ICU), besides identifying which indexes have been the most effective to estimate these results. A retrospective analysis was done in the records of 185 victims admitted in ICU between June and December 2006. None of the four indexes properly discriminated the patients according to length of stay at the ICU. The ISS and the NISS did not show a good discriminating capacity in case of death, but the SAPS II and the LODS presented good performance to estimate mortality at the ICU. Results pointed towards the use of SAPS II and LODS when trauma victims are admitted in an ICU.