FOOT AND ANKLE SEVERITY SCALE (FASS)

Increasing use of air bags and seat baits has led to the saving of man y lives. However, the orthopaedic surgeon is now left to manage increa sing numbers of serious foot and ankle trauma. It is important to inju ry prevention programs to have an injury severity scale for these inju ries. The Abbreviated Injury Scale is used widely; however, it is inte nded primarily to gauge possibility of death after accidents. It is no t sensitive enough to give meaningful data about the foot and ankle tr auma epidemic. The Trauma Committee of the American Orthopaedic Foot a nd Ankle Society has developed a rank order list of 91 foot and ankle injuries that commonly occur in vehicular crashes. The injuries are ra nked according to severity (FASS-S). Estimated long-term impairment is also given for each injury (FASS-I). This scale is designed as a guid eline to help rank importance and impairment of vehicular crash injuri es. It is expected that the scale will be modified as future validity testing and other research dictates.