The Cardiovascular
ToolsCalculators

Injury Severity Score (ISS)

Anatomic trauma score from the three most injured body regions.

Injury Severity Score (ISS)
Head/neck - highest AIS
AIS 0-6
Face - highest AIS
AIS 0-6
Chest - highest AIS
AIS 0-6
Abdomen/pelvis - highest AIS
AIS 0-6
Extremity/pelvic girdle - highest AIS
AIS 0-6
External/skin - highest AIS
AIS 0-6
Complete the fields above to see the result.

When to use

  • Quantifying overall anatomic injury burden for trauma triage, audit, and research.

Formula

Assign the highest AIS (0-6) in each of six regions, take the three most injured regions, and sum the squares of their AIS values (range 0-75). Any single AIS of 6 makes the ISS 75.

Pearls and pitfalls

  • Only the single highest AIS per region counts, and only three regions contribute.

References

  1. Baker SP, O'Neill B, Haddon W, Long WB. J Trauma. 1974;14(3):187-96.