Determining the severity of trauma is an essential tool to guide treatment and establish the necessary resources for attention. In a Colombian population from a capital city, trauma scales have adequate performance for the prediction of mortality in patients with trauma.

Background: The soft tissues injury in periarticular fractures of the lower extremities determines the proper time to perform bone fixation. Objetive: The aim of this study was to determine the intra and interobserver agreement in the Tscherne classification. Methods: This is a descriptive, prospective study for patients admitted to the Pablo Tobón Uribe Hospital (PTUH) with tibial plateau or tibial pilon fractures. We performed a standardize evaluation using video photography at the time of admission and 24, 48, and 72 h after admission. Fifteen five reviewers who had various levels of training produced a total of 1,200 observations. The intra- and interobserver agreement was assessed using a weighted kappa for multiple raters and more than two categories. Results: Twenty patients were admitted with tibial plateau and tibial pilon fractures. The intraobserver agreement for all 15 raters was kappa 0.81 (95% CI 0.79-0.83), and the interobserver agreement for all 15 raters was kappa 0.65 (95% CI 0.55-0.73). The interobserver agreement at 24 h was kappa 0.67 (95% CI 0.46-0.86). Conclusions:Classifying the severity of soft tissue injury is critical in planning the surgical management of fractures of the lower extremities. Based on our results, we can reasonably argue that the Tscherne classification produced an adequate level of agreement and could be used to standardize and to guide the treatment, and to conduct research studies. Level of Evidence: Level IV, Case Series

Exploring the cluster patterns of injuries and body areas affected in traffic accidents allow to establish anatomical groups defined by the type of accident and the type of vehicle. This classification system will accelerate and prioritize ER-care for these population groups, helping to provide better health care services and to rationalize available resources.

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