The Bidirectionality of Global Surgical Research: The Utility of the Malawi Trauma Score in the United States Trauma Population

Abstract

IntroductionTrauma scoring systems provide valuable risk stratification of injured patients. Trauma scoring systems developed in resource-limited settings, such as the Malawi Trauma Score (MTS), are based on readily available clinical information. This study sought to test the performance of the MTS in a United States trauma population. Materials and methodsWe analyzed the United States National Trauma Data Bank during 2017-2020. MTS uses alertness score: alert, responds to verbal or painful stimuli, or unresponsive (AVPU), age, sex, presence of a radial pulse, and primary anatomic injury location. MTS and an age-adjusted version reflective of the US age distribution, was evaluated for its performance in predicting crude mortality in the National Trauma Data Bank using receiver operating characteristic analysis. We utilized logistic regression to model the odds ratio of death at a particular MTS cutoff. ResultsA total of 3,833,929 patients were included. The mean age was 49.3 y (sandard deviation 24.4), with a male preponderance (61.1%). Crude mortality was 3.4% (n = 131,452/3,833,929). The area under the curve for the MTS in predicting mortality was 0.87 (95% CI 0.87, 0.88). The area under the curve for a cutoff of 15 was 0.83 (95% CI 0.83, 0.83). An MTS of 15 higher had an odds ratio of death of 46.5 (95% CI 45.9, 47.1), compared to those with a score of 14 or lower. ConclusionsMTS has excellent performance as a predictor of mortality in a US trauma population. MTS is simple to calculate and can be estimated in the prehospital setting or the emergency department. Consequently, it may have utility as a triage tool in both high-income trauma systems and resource-limited settings.