Predictors of in-hospital mortality of trauma patients injured in vehicle accidents.

OBJECTIVES: Identification and assessment of predictive factors of in-hospital mortality of trauma patients injured in vehicle accidents. METHODS: We reviewed the Trauma Registry data of Herakleion University Hospital, a level I trauma center in Crete, Greece. All 730 consecutive, adult motor-vehicle trauma patients admitted to our hospital from 1997 to 2000 were included in the study. Variables included in the analysis were: sex, age, mechanism of injury, injuries per anatomic region, initial vital signs, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Injury Severity Score (ISS), and the final outcome. In order to better describe continuous variables, two categories were created: age > or = 60 and or = 18 and or = 60, pedestrians, those with an ISS > or = 18 and craniocerebral, thoracic or abdominal injuries are at higher risk of an in-hospital fatal outcome. Language: en