Trauma scores and trauma outcome measures

Objective measurement and quantification of injury severity are necessary for triage, performance evaluation and research. In order to evaluate interventions, outcomes must also be compared. While this can be done using hospital stay or mortality, these will fail to detect subtle differences. Impact of injury on health can be quantified using a variety of scoring systems. Trauma scoring and outcome measurement have grown increasingly complex in recent years and are likely to become more so in the future.