• Jeffrey Santos, Shelby Kunz, Areg Grigorian, Stephen Park, Emiliano Tabarsi, Kazuhide Matsushima, Liz Penaloza-Villalobos, Xian Luo-Owen, Kaushik Mukherjee, Claudia Alvarez, and Jeffry Nahmias.
• From the Division of Trauma, Burns and Surgical Critical Care, Department of Surgery, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA (Santos, Kunz, Grigorian, Alvarez, Nahmias).
• J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2024 Oct 1; 239 (4): 347353347-353.

BackgroundThe Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) is widely used for body region-specific injury severity. The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Organ Injury Scale (AAST-OIS) provides organ-specific injury severity but is not included in trauma databases. Previous researchers have used AIS as a surrogate for OIS. This study aims to assess AIS-abdomen concordance with AAST-OIS grade for liver and spleen injuries, hypothesizing concordance in terms of severity (grade of OIS and AIS) and patient outcomes.Study DesignThis retrospective study (July 2020 to June 2022) was performed at 3 trauma centers. Adult trauma patients with AAST-OIS grade III to V liver and spleen injury were included. AAST-OIS grade for each organ was compared with AIS-abdomen by evaluating the percentage of AAST-OIS grade correlating with each AIS score as well as rates of operative intervention for these injuries. Analysis was performed with chi-square tests and univariate analysis.ResultsOf 472 patients, 274 had liver injuries and 205 had spleen injuries grades III to V. AAST-OIS grade III to V liver injuries had concordances rates of 85.5%, 71%, and 90.9% with corresponding AIS 3 to 5 scores. AAST-OIS grade III to V spleen injuries had concordances rates of 89.7%, 87.8%, and 87.3%, respectively. There was a statistical lack of concordance for both liver and spleen injuries (both p < 0.001). Additionally, there were higher rates of operative intervention for AAST-OIS grade IV and V liver injuries and grade III and V spleen injuries vs corresponding AIS scores (p < 0.05).ConclusionsAIS should not be used interchangeably with OIS due to lack of concordance. AAST-OIS should be included in trauma databases to facilitate improved organ injury research and quality improvement projects.Copyright © 2024 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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