Objective To testify the efficacy of revised trauma score （RTS） in evaluating the severity of trunk injury，analyze its inadequacy and make modifications to improve its specificity and accuracy in evaluating trunk injury. Methods Medical records of 278 patients undergoing emergency surgery for the treatment of trunk injury in West China Hospital of Sichuan University between January 2006 and June 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 231 males and 47 females in the age of 1-75 （33.7±14.1） years. RTS was calculated for each patient. Hemoglobin （Hb） concentrations in these patients acquired at the emergency room were included to reflect the severity of blood loss. The correlations between RTS and patient response to treatment as well as RTS and prognosis were analyzed. Patient response to treatment and prognosis were compared between the normal RTS group and the abnormal RTS group. Univariate analysis was performed followed by multivariate analysis for the variables which may impact prognosis. Modified RTS was established by regression analysis. Results RTS was significantly correlated with patient response to treatment as well as prognosis. RTS was significantly correlated with the time duration between the onset of injury and the beginning of operation （r =0.249，P＜0.001）， thoracic and abdominal blood loss volume （r = -0.255，P＜0.001），fluid resuscitation volume （r = -0.244，P＜0.001） as well as length of ICU stay （r = -0.202，P=0.001）. Mortalities in patients with different RTS were statistically different （P=0.004）. In the patient group with normal RTS the mortality was 5.1%，which indicates the inadequacy of RTS in evaluating trunk injury. Univariate analysis revealed that both emergency room Hb and RTS were correlated with patients’ prognosis. After putting these two factors into the regression analysis，a new formula to calculate modified RTS is established：Logit （P death）=6.450-0.769×RTS-0.029×Emergency room Hb. Conclusion Modified RTS is more specific in evaluating trunk injury and maintains the advantages of simplicity and rapidness.
Objective To investigate the causes of death and evaluation of injury severity in patients with thoracic trauma so as to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of thoracic trauma. Methods A retrospective study was carried out in 687 patients with thoracic trauma, which were divided into different groups according to their condition of injury (chest injury group and multiple injuries group) and outcome (survival group and death group) and penetrating into pleural cavity (penetrating injury group and blunt trauma group), then trauma scores(revised trauma score,abbreviated injury scale,injury severity score,probability of survival)were compared respectively. In addition, the highrisk causes of trauma death were analyzed. Results Among 687 cases, there are 488 cases with blunt trauma and 199 cases with penetrating injury. The causes of trauma death in blunt trauma group were brain injury (10 cases) and acute respiratory failure (6 cases) and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (4 cases) and hypovolemic shock (1 case). The causes of trauma death in penetrating trauma group were hypovolemic shock (9 cases). There were statistically difference of trauma score in the death group and the survival group（GCS：t=4.648,P=0.000; RTS:t=4.382,P=0.000;thoracic AIS：t=2.296,P=0.027;ISS：t=4.871，P=0.000; Ps：t=4.254,P=0.000）. There was no statistically difference of thoracic AIS in the chest injury group and the multiple injuries group (t=0.723, P=34.567), and there were statistical significances in RTS（t=2.553,P=0.032）, ISS（t=10.776,P=0.000）, Ps（t=3.868,P=0.007）. There were statistically difference of RTS（t=3.161,P=0.007）and ISS （t=4.118,P=0.005） in the blunt trauma survival group and penetrating injury survival group, and there was no statistical significance in Ps（t=0.857,P=97.453）. The blunt trauma death group had statistical difference compared with penetrating injury death group in trauma score（GCS：t=4.016,P=0.001，RTS:t=3.168,P=0.006;thoracic AIS：t=2.303, P=0.043;ISS：t=4.218,P=0.002;Ps：t=4.624,P=0.001）. The mortality of trauma was gradually increased with the trauma scores. The mortality was 10.7% when whole ISS was 20.25. The mortality in penetrating injury group was higher than that in blunt trauma group with the same ISS between two groups. Conclusion Applying trauma score is conducive to the judgement of trauma severity and optimizing clinical treatment. The death causes in blunt trauma group were more complex than in penetrating injury group. Severe trauma and multiple injuries are the main death causes of thoracic trauma.