A comparison among the abilities of various injury severity measures to predict mortality with and without accompanying physiologic information.

Background: A few recent studies have compared the abilities of different injury severity measures to predict inpatient mortality. This study extended previous studies in that it used a registry with noncenters as well as centers, and examined the relative marginal abilities of competing severity measures to predict mortality when physiologic data also are available.

Methods: Several methods for assessing injury severity of trauma patients were compared in terms of their ability to predict mortality with and without the addition of additional demographic and physiologic information using logistic regression models.

Elderly trauma inpatients in New York state: 1994-1998.

Background: The aging of the population in the United States has led to an increase in geriatric trauma. This study aimed to examine the characteristics and outcomes of geriatric trauma patients in New York State.

Methods: Four groups of elderly trauma patients (ages 40-64, 65-74, 75-84, and 85+ years) were contrasted with younger adults ages 13 to 39 years with respect to mechanism of injury, discharge disposition, hospital length of stay, comorbidities, and type of hospital in which they were treated.