Retrospective evaluation of the BIG score to predict mortality in pediatric blunt trauma

This study's objective was to measure the criterion validity of the BIG score (a new pediatric trauma score composed of the initial base deficit [BD], international normalized ratio [INR], and Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS]) to predict in-hospital mortality among children admitted to the emergency department with blunt trauma requiring an admission to the intensive care unit, knowing that a score <16 identifies children with a high probability of survival.

This was a retrospective cohort study performed in a single tertiary care pediatric hospital between 2008 and 2016. Participants were all children admitted to the emergency department for a blunt trauma requiring intensive care unit admission or who died in the emergency department. The primary analysis was the association between a BIG score ≥16 and in-hospital mortality.

Twenty-eight children died among the 336 who met the inclusion criteria. Two hundred eighty-four children had information on the three components of the BIG score, and they were included in the primary analysis. A BIG score ≥16 demonstrated a sensitivity of 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.76-0.98) and specificity of 0.83 (95% CI: 0.78-0.87) to identify mortality. Using receiver operating characteristic curves, the area under the curve was higher for the BIG score (0.97; 95% IC: 0.95-0.99) in comparison to the Injury Severity Score (0.78; 95% IC: 0.71-0.85).

In this retrospective cohort, the BIG score was an excellent predictor of survival for children admitted to the emergency department following a blunt trauma.