Kampala Trauma Score (KTS): Is it a new triage tool?

Abstract

In North America, injury surveillance has generated an accumulation of data regarding trauma events and outcomes through the implementation of trauma registries. Trauma registries have been predominantly instituted in response to the desire to be accredited by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Committee on Trauma as an ACS Trauma Center¹. These registries play a key role in research that determines epidemiological patterns of injury, advances injury prevention actions and finally, measures outcomes². For example, they have been used extensively in the US to monitor reductions in mortality which has been attributed to the institution of “trauma systems”, coordinated hospital-based systems for the management of injured patients³. As interventions to reduce and prevent injuries are sought, registries allow the calculation of injury rates, identification of causes and measurement of outcomes produced by implementation of interventions⁴. Trauma registry data is made universally comparable across different strata through the routine use of trauma scores, such as the revised trauma score (RTS) and injury severity score (ISS).