Taking another look at MOI - Bledsoe article

[karaya]

Interesting short article from Dr. Bledsoe on his differing look at MOI in pre-hosptial triage.

http://www.ems1.com/ems-products/ed...anism-of-Injury-in-Prehospital-Trauma-Triage/

 

[Akulahawk]

Mechanism of Injury has been a KNOWN poor predictor of SEVERE injury for years. In fact, it's a poor predictor of any injury severity, period. This has been commonly known to Sports Medicine folks for a VERY long time. What MOI really is good for is predicting a LACK of injury. If you can't find a MOI... you're not going to find any injury. MOI can also tell you WHERE to look for injury. If you punch a wall, you're likely to see injury in fingers, hand, wrist, and/or forearm on the side that you punched the wall with. You're not likely to see acute injury to any part of the body that you didn't strike the wall with.



I base my Trauma Triage decisions about like this:

(-) MOI = Not a Trauma Patient - possibly not a patient.
(+) MOI = Check for Anatomic Indicators
(+) MOI = Check for Physiologic indicators

If I find (+) specific Anatomic or Physiologic indicators... then I'm going to activate a Trauma Team.
So, a (+) MOI increases my index of suspicion about the possibility of an injury, and tells me that I should look for an injury... but without physiologic or anatomic indicators, I am not going to activate a Trauma Team unless I'm directed to by protocol.:wacko: