Validation of the COAST score for predicting acute traumatic coagulopathy: A retrospective single-centre cohort study:

PurposeEarly identification of trauma patients at risk of developing acute traumatic coagulopathy is important in initiating appropriate, coagulopathy-focused treatment. A clinical acute traumatic coagulopathy prediction tool is a quick, simple method to evaluate risk. The COAST score was developed in Australia and we hypothesised that it could predict coagulopathy and bleeding-related adverse outcomes in other advanced trauma systems. We validated COAST on a single-centre cohort of trauma patients from a trauma centre in Belgium.MethodsThe COAST score was modified to suit available data; we used entrapment, blood pressure, temperature, major chest injury and abdominal injury to calculate the score. Acute traumatic coagulopathy was defined as international normalised ratio >1.5 or activated partial thromboplastin time >60 s upon arrival of the patient to the hospital. Data were extracted from the local trauma registry on patients that presented between 1 January and 31 December 2015.ResultsIn all, 133 pat...