Triaging plays an important role in providing suitable care to the largest number of casualties in a disaster setting. We developed the Pediatric Physiological and Anatomical Triage score (PPATS) as a new secondary triage method.

This study was performed to validate the accuracy of the PPATS in pediatric patients with burn injuries.

A retrospective review of pediatric patients with burn injuries younger than 15 years old registered in the Japan Trauma Databank from 2004 to 2016 was conducted. The PPATS, which was assigned scores from 0 to 22, was calculated based on vital signs, anatomical abnormalities, and need for life-saving intervention. The PPATS categorized the patients by their priority and defined the intensive care unit (ICU)-indicated patients as those with PPARSs more than 6. This study compared the accuracy of prediction of ICU-indicated patients between the PPATS and Triage Revised Trauma Score (TRTS).

Among 87 pediatric patients, 62 (71%) were admitted to the ICU. The median age was 3 years (interquartile range: 1 to 9 years old). The sensitivity and specificity of the PPATS were 74% and 36%, respectively. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve was not different between the PPTAS [0.51 (95% confidence interval: -0.51–1.48) and the TRTS [0.51 (-1.17–1.62), p=0.57]. Regression analysis showed a significant association between the PPATS and the Injury Severity Score (ISS) (r2=0.39, p<0.01). On the other hand, there is no association between the TRTS and the ISS (r2=0.00, p=0.79).

The accuracy of the PPATS was not superior to that of current secondary-triage methods. However, the PPATS had the advantage of objectively determining the triage priority ranking based on the severity of the pediatric patients with burn injuries.