Association between the Japan Coma Scale scores at the scene of injury and in-hospital outcomes in trauma patients: an analysis from the nationwide trauma database in Japan

Objective Japan Coma Scale (JCS) is a grading system used to evaluate disturbed consciousness in prehospital care settings. We aimed to identify the association between the JCS levels at the scene with in-hospital mortality, as well as the discrimination ability for the outcomes. Design A retrospective cohort study based on the nationwide trauma database in Japan. Setting Multicentre cohort study using data from the Japan Trauma Data Bank, which is a nationwide, prospective, observational trauma registry derived from 235 hospitals. Participants Adult trauma victims transferred directly from the scene of injury to the hospital from January 2004 to December 2017 were eligible for inclusion. Primary and secondary outcomes Primary outcome was the association between the JCS levels at the scene with in-hospital mortality. We conducted a multivariate logistic regression analysis to calculate the adjusted ORs of JCS levels with 95% CIs for in-hospital mortality. We also calculated the c-statistics for in-hospital mortality. Results 164 723 patients were included in the analysis. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, the corresponding adjusted ORs of JCS levels 2 and 3 referred to level 1 for in-hospital mortality were 4.1 (95% CI 3.8 to 4.4) and 26.0 (95% CI 24.8 to 27.2). The c-statistics of the JCS level for in-hospital mortality was 0.845 (95% CI 0.842 to 0.849). Conclusions Data from large multicentre prospective registry revealed strong associations of the JCS level at the scene of injury with in-hospital mortality as well as the good discriminatory performance for this outcome.