Citation

MacKenzie EJ, Shapiro S, Moody M, Smith R. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1984; 28: 173-187.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The utility of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and the Injury Severity Score (ISS) were tested for their ability to predict functional disability at time of discharge from the hospital and changes in functional disability for periods up to one year following discharge. The ISS has been shown to correlate well with mortality and length of stay (LOS) but the relationship to levels of disability has not been carefully examined until now. 599 patients (ages 16-45) have been interviewed at time of discharge and at 6 and 12 months post-discharge to ascertain functional disability along 4 dimensions (ADL, IADL, communication, mobility). This paper reports on the relationship between severity and functional disability at time of discharge for a subset of patients who did not suffer a significant brain injury. Results show that the relationship between ISS and status at discharge is not monotonically increasing as it is with mortality and LOS. Rather, the proportion of people with severe injuries who report limitations is lower than for those with moderately severe injuries. Further, it is shown that the AIS of the most severe extremity and spine injury carry considerably more weight when predicting functional status at discharge than do the AIS scores of injuries to any other body region.