J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  1999 Mar;10(1):85-90.

Factors Affecting to Injury Severity of Free-Fall Patients

• Chung SP
• Chung SW
• Chung HS
• Hwang TS
• Chang WJ
• Lee HS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We designed this study to determine whether trauma history and initial assessment anticipate the injury severity of the free-fall patient.
METHODS
Two hundred patients who admitted emergency department of Severance hospital because of the fall from a height were enrolled in this study. The height of fall, the body orientation, and the characteristics of impacted material, and the Injury Severity Score(ISS) were evaluated by retrospective chart reviews. And regression equations were determined for predicting ISS on the basis of clinical parameters using multiple regression analysis.
RESULTS
According to the characteristics of impacted material, the ISS was higher in the hard surface(13.7+/-9.5) than the sort surface(10.5+/-8.8)(p<0.05). There were correlations between height of fall and ISS(p<0.01, r=0.5). To the body orientation, the ISS was higher in the head-to-feet orientation(18.211.7) than the feet-to-head(10.9+/- 7.0) or other position(8.5+/-5.8)(p<0.01). The regression equations were as follows, ISS=2 +0.082xage(year)-1.54x(Glasgow Coma Scale)-3x(feet-to-head orientation)+0.65x height of fall(m)+2.7 x (hand surface)(p<0.01, R2=0.53).
CONCLUSION
This study suggest that the injury severity of patient with free fall are significancy related to the height of fall, the characteristics of impacted material and the body orientation.

MeSH Terms

Coma
Emergency Service, Hospital
Humans
Retrospective Studies