When discussing outcomes for trauma patients, it can be
helpful to have measurement tools to provide information
about probabilities for recovery and return to function.
One common tool regularly used to describe the trauma
a patient has sustained is the Injury Severity Score or ISS
(Baker, O’Neill, Haddon, & Long, 1974). This tool is also
utilized in benchmarking data for trauma programs across
the country. A numeric score of 0–75 is assigned to a
patient with regard to their particular injuries, and the numeric
score is further tied to a specific group injury rating
of minor, moderate, severe, or very severe. The American
College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma has indicated
that fatal outcomes increase for all severity levels for patients
older than 75 years (American College of Surgeons,
2010). However, a limitation of the ISS is that it does not
take into account any confounding factors for the patient
such as comorbidities, polypharmacy, or syndromes related
to aging, and therefore may be less able to account
for important predictors of mortality in the elderly.