Vital sign based shock scores are poor at triaging South African trauma patients

The currently available vital sign based scores (SBP, MAP, SI, MSI, SIA) used in the prediction of shock severity and triage are not good predictors of mortality, need for ICU, need for theatre or need for blood transfusion in our population where half the trauma is penetrating and there are long pre-hospital delays. Our data suggests that none of the proposed CSS's are capable of reliably and accurately identifying and categorizing shock states in South African trauma patients.