@article{ref1,
title="The sensitivity of pre-hospital and in-hospital tools for the identification of major trauma patients presenting to a major trauma centre",
journal="Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service",
year="2013",
author="Potter, D. and Kehoe, A. and Smith, J. E.",
volume="99",
number="1",
pages="16-19",
abstract="The identification of major trauma patients before arrival in hospital allows the activation of an appropriate trauma response. The Wessex triage tool (WTT) uses a combination of anatomical injury assessment and physiological criteria to identify patients with major trauma suitable for triage direct to a major trauma centre (MTC), and has been adopted by the South-West Peninsula Trauma Network (PTN). A retrospective database review, using the Trauma Audit Research Network (TARN) database, was undertaken to identify a population of patients presenting to Derriford Hospital with an injury severity score (ISS) >15. The WTT was then applied to this population to identify the sensitivity of the tool. The sensitivity of the WTT at identifying patients with an ISS> 15 was 53%. One of the reasons for this finding was that elderly patients who are defined as having major trauma due to the nature of their injuries, but who did not have a mechanism to suggest they had sustained major trauma (such as a fall from standing height), were not identified by these triage tools. The implications of this are discussed.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0035-9033",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}