What’s the injury severity score?

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The Injury Severity Score, or ISS, is a numerical value that is intended to quantify the severity of one or more wounds. It is particularly effective for judging the condition of individuals with multiple wounds, as it takes into account six different areas of the body, including the head and neck, face and soft tissue. A value from 1 to 6 is assigned to wounds throughout the body, with 1 representing a minor wound and 6 representing a non-surviving wound. The most severe injury in the three most severely injured parts of a person’s body are squared and added together, usually returning scores from 1 to 75. One of the major weaknesses of the injury severity score is that it can sometimes be somewhat arbitrary since people may judge the severity of injuries differently.

If any of the wounds are assigned a severity value of 6, the injury’s severity score is immediately set to 75. A 6 will only be assigned to wounds that a physician deems non-surviving. When in doubt, the wound is more likely to receive a score of 5, which represents a critical injury. When multiple casualties are present, someone with injuries judged to be non-survivors will likely be ignored as medical professionals may choose to treat more promising cases first. Individuals with cumulative scores below 10, on the other hand, may not require immediate treatment because their injuries are fairly minor.

An individual with an injury severity score greater than 16 is said to be suffering from polytrauma. A polytrauma is a condition in which you have suffered several physical injuries of a rather serious nature. Although polytrauma is an umbrella term, it is often used by military doctors to explain the condition of soldiers with multiple and severe wounds. It’s also possible that someone who has an injury severity score above 16 hasn’t actually sustained multiple injuries. If this is the case, your single wound is likely to be very serious and needs immediate medical attention.

Imagine a person who has suffered injuries to the neck, chest, hand and lower back. The hand wound is little more than a scratch; is ignored as only the three most serious injuries count towards the injury severity score. The neck is badly bruised, there is a bleeding gash on the chest, and the lower back is causing the person significant pain, so the injuries will be scored as 2, 3, and 2, respectively. 2 squared, plus 3 squared , plus 2 squared gives an injury severity score of 17. The individual is then considered to be suffering from moderate to severe multiple trauma.

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