Introduction:

We aimed to categorize retrospectively trauma patients by using an anatomical (Injury Severity Score - ISS) and a physiological (Revised Trauma Score - RTS) scoring system in our center, which is established near the east border of Turkey where the specialists are working temporarily during their compulsory medical service.

Material and methods:

Twenty-five trauma patients who admitted in Igdir Government Hospital with Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores >3 who has undergone life saving surgery due to a hemodynamically unstable solid organ injury between September 2010 to September 2011 were evaluated retrospectively. The ?2 test was used for categorical variables, the Student t test was used for comparisons of continuous variables. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for other nonparametric quantitative data. A P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results:

Mean age of the patients was 32.4 years (19-64) and male/female ratio was 19/6. The most frequently detected trauma mechanism was traffic accident (n=12). The most frequently injured solid organ was liver (n=14). The mean initial ISS was 23.6±19.9 and RTS was 6.7±1.8. ISS was higher than 60 pts in four patients, in parallel with their lower mean RTS scores (3.1±1.8) (p<0.05). The mortality rate of this subgroup was 100% (p<0.001). Overall, 7 (28%) of patients had multiple traumas with a mortality rate of 57.1%, while in 4 of them all three body cavities were traumatized.

Conclusion:

In our level II trauma center which does not have full availability specialties, personnel and equipment; health care, transfer and management of the severe trauma patients who couldn’t be referred to major trauma centers were accomplished properly in accordance with surgical treatment algorithms and trauma scores of the patients. Treatment results of our patients appear to be similar to those reported in the current literature.

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