A pediatric specific shock index in combination with GMS identifies children with life threatening or severe traumatic brain injury

We have previously demonstrated that a shock index, pediatric age adjusted (SIPA) accurately identifies severely blunt injured children. We aimed to determine if SIPA could more accurately identify children with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) than hypotension alone. We performed subset analysis of those children with TBI among a cohort of children age 4-16 years with blunt trauma and injury severity score a parts per thousand yen15 from 1/07 to 6/13. We evaluated the ability of four markers to identify the most severely brain injured children. Markers included hypotension, elevated SIPA, abnormal GCS motor score (GMS), and elevated SIPA or abnormal GMS. We aimed to determine which of these four markers had the highest sensitivity in identifying severely injured children. Three hundred and ninety-two (392) children were included. Hypotension was present in 24 patients (6 %); elevated SIPA in 106 (27 %), abnormal GMS in 172 (44 %), and elevated SIPA or abnormal GMS in 206 (53 %). All markers were able to accurately identify severely injured children with TBI. Elevated SIPA or abnormal GMS identified a greater percentage of patients with each of seven complications with higher sensitivity than each of the three other markers. Among blunt injured children with TBI, elevated SIPA or abnormal GMS identifies severely brain injured children.