Appraisal of Early Evaluation of Blunt Chest Trauma: Development of a Standardized Scoring System for Initial Clinical Decision Making

Abstract

Radiographically determined injuries to the lung parenchyma have a closer association with adverse outcome than chest-wall injuries but are often not diagnosed until 24 hours after injury. Therefore, clinical decision making, such as about the choice of surgery for long bone fractures, may be flawed if this information is used alone. A new thoracic trauma severity score may serve as an additional tool to improve the accuracy of the prediction of thoracic trauma-related complications.