title: Organ injury scaling system can be used to predict length of stay in patients with penetrating neck injuries.
abstract: Predicting probability of survival of trauma patients has received greater attention than predicting other trauma outcomes such as length of stay. Most trauma scoring systems depend on the anatomic description of injuries of the Abbreviated Injury Score (AIS). The recently introduced Organ Injury Scale (OIS) was developed to give more precise and comprehensive anatomic description of injuries. Unlike the AIS, it also avoids including immediate injury sequelae, such as the amount of hemorrhage. This retrospective study was performed to assess the degree of association between the sum of grades of penetrating neck injuries using the OIS and the length of hospital stay. There were 31 males and 7 females, with ages ranging from 13 to 65 years and a mean of 31 years. The length of hospital stay ranged between 1 and 34 days, with a mean of 7.0 +/- 6.5 days. There were 32 vascular, 7 esophageal, and 7 tracheal injuries. The sum of the OIS grades correlates significantly with the length of hospital stay (r = 0.78; P < 0.005). This study suggests that the OIS system can be used to predict the length of hospital stay. It proposes also that the OIS replaces similar anatomic components of the AIS-based scoring systems.
authors.affiliation: Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Atta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004947:Esophagus / Q000293:injuries; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019838:Neck Injuries / Q000145:classification* / Q000601:surgery; D010614:Pharynx / Q000293:injuries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014132:Trachea / Q000293:injuries; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*