Injury Severity Score

The Injury Severity Score (ISS) is an established medical score to asses trauma severity. It correlates with mortality, morbidity and hospitalization time after trauma. It is used to define the term polytrauma.

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Abbreviated Injury Scale AIS

The ISS is based (see below) upon the Abbreviated Injury Scale AIS. The AIS describes the severity of injury to one body region: 1 Minor, 2 Moderate, 3 Serious, 4 Severe, 5 Critical, 6 Maximal (currently untreatable).

ISS Definition

ISS = A^2 + B^2 + C^2; A, B, C being the AIS score of the three most injured of the following body regions: head, face, thorax, abdomen, extremities (incl. pelvis).

Polytrauma Definition

A Polytrauma is defined as ISS >= 16.

References

Baker SP et al, "The Injury Severity Score: a method for describing patients with multiple injuries and evaluating emergency care", J Trauma 14:187-196;1974