A STANDARDIZED RATING GUIDE FOR EVALUATING ACCIDENT INJURIES TO SPINE AND EXTREMITIES

Abstract

Complaints are heard from those commencing surgical and specialist practice about their troubles in preparing medico-legal reports concerning accident injuries to the back and extremities. There have been repeated requests for authoritative, up-to-date information that lays down guidelines to replace the old, complicated, impracticable ratings for assessing degrees of disability. An answer to this pressing need is now offered in the “Manual for Orthopaedic Surgeons in Evaluating Permanent Physical Impairment”3 prepared for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons by the Disability Evaluation Committee (Chairman, Earl D. McBride, 1963), which is described in this paper, and illustrated by a few clinical problems of evaluation. The accompanying legends below the illustrations describe details of individual interpretation and adaptation of crucial “Manual” ratings adjusted by conversion to Victorian Workers’ Compensation laws and tables, but are equally versatile in other jurisdictions (Figures 9 and 12) and in local situations—for example, in the Commonwealth, or in other States. The “Manual” lays down a reasonable norm, an imperative starting point in the preparation of a medico-legal appraisement, and the message is that perhaps it may bring about some order in the prevailing chaos and misunderstandings in medico-legal opinions by introducing a degree of conformity.