• Antonella Ardolino, C Ronny Cheung, Thomas Lawrence, Omar Bouamra, Fiona Lecky, Kathleen Berry, Mark Lyttle, Damian Roland, Nadeeja Koralage, Shabara Issa, Adeel Chaudhary, Ian Maconochie, and PERUKI group.
• Royal Hampshire Hospital, Winchester, UK.
• Emerg Med J. 2015 May 1;32(5):397-400.

ObjectiveTo investigate the performance characteristics in children with moderate and minor injuries of prehospital paediatric triage tools currently in use in England for identifying seriously injured children.MethodsEight prehospital paediatric triage tools were identified from literature review and a survey of the lead trauma clinicians across the 10 English strategic health authorities. Retrospective clinical data from 2934 patient records collected by four emergency departments were used to analyse each tool. A target sensitivity of >95% and specificity of 50-75% was set based on the literature.ResultsThree tools (East Midlands, North West and Northern) demonstrated acceptable sensitivity (all 100%). The other five tools fell below the target sensitivity of >95%. All eight tools had acceptable specificity (with results between 79% and 99%).ConclusionsThree tools (East Midlands, North West and Northern) demonstrated acceptable over- and under-triage rates in this population of minor and moderately injured children. All tools reached recommended standards for over-triage, but the majority favoured under-triage.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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