Scope Assessment of Soft Tissue Injury within Polytrauma for Needs of Fortis System Injury Classification

BACKGROUND: The paper points out the importance of quantifying the extent and nature of organ and tissue injury within the assessment of severity of damage to health caused by effect of blunt or combined force. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the value of mechanical violence that caused the injury using the Fortis system based on the detected range of injured soft tissue and the localization of the sites affected by said violence. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this experimental study the authors carried out measurements and calculations in 10 pedestrians, who died of polytrauma in an accident. The morphometric Ellipse v.2.0.7.1.software was used for the purpose (Vidito Kosice, Slovak Republic). RESULTS: The internal organ injuries were successfully evaluated in a planographic manner on serial sections with the following calculation of total extent of tissue damage (TETD). It turned out that if TETD is more than 40%, it will be possible to evaluate an injury as severe or life-threatening. CONCLUSION: The above classification and localization of pedestrian injuries facilitate calculations in simulation programs to determine how the movement of a pedestrian´s body during and after the collision occurred based on the unrepeatability of movement parameters; besides, contacts with a vehicle help determine the input data to calculate the collision. Based on the submitted case reports and performed measurements and calculations, the presented method of the extent classification of soft tissue damage is evaluated to be useful to standardize the injury parameters and assess polytrauma as a result of disproportionate force.