Penetrating cardiac trauma. Quantifying the severity of anatomic and physiologic injury.

A method of quantifying the anatomic extent of injury to the heart, Penetrating Cardiac Trauma Index, (PCTI) and other thoracic organs has been proposed. The total extent of thoracic injury, Penetrating Thoracic Trauma Index (PTTI), was measured. When associated abdominal injury was present, it was assessed by the Penetrating Abdominal Trauma Index (PATI) of Moore et al. The severity of total injury sustained by the patient, represented by the Penetrating Trauma Index (PTI), was determined by the sum total of these scores. The extent of physiologic abnormality induced by cardiac penetration, (Physiologic Index or PI), was graded on a scale of increasing severity from 5-20 based on the vital signs of patients on admission. Analysis of 112 patients with penetrating cardiac injuries (1973-1983) revealed that the indices, PCTI and PI, showed an excellent correlation with survival (R2 = 0.827 and 0.928, respectively) as did the total extent of trauma (PTI). A composite prognostic score of the sum of PI and PTI demonstrated a significant separation of survivors from nonsurvivors (p less than 0.001). It is concluded that these anatomic (PCTI and PTI) and physiologic (PI) indices are valid and, with additional confirmation, may provide an objective method of evaluating penetrating cardiac injuries.