The trauma severity assessment and basic life support maneuvers in prehospital setting can represent to the trauma victim the opportunity of survival until his/her can get assistance in the hospital. PURPOSE: To study external cause victims assessed in the prehospital phase by the physiologic index named Trauma Score modificado (TSm). METHODS: Retrospective analyses were made of 1414 victims attended by Sistema de Atendimento Móvel às Urgências (SAMU-RESGATE-SP) in the Municipality of São Paulo during 1991. Data were gathered from prehospital data recording sheets and necropsy records. RESULTS: Prehospital attendance was carried out in 81.31% until 40 minutes. Non-fatal victims (83.96%) had 12 and 11 TSm scores while 53.96% of the fatal victims had 0, 1 and 2 scores. External surface (30.25%) and head/neck (20.98%) were most injured areas and 63.63% fatal victims with Injury Severity Score (ISS) > or = 16 died within first 24 hours. Comparing the fatal victims TSm and ISS scores verified that 81.20% victims with TSm score between 0 and 11 had major trauma (ISS > or = 16). CONCLUSION: Strong trends were also found out in that fatal victims with low TSm scores showed relations to the high ISS scores.
Trauma severity indices; Accidents; Violence; Mortality
