Primarily aimed at medical staff in trauma centers and accident and emergency departments, this text provides references to sources of instruments and techniques used for outcome measurement in trauma, and advises on the optimum choice of instrument. Where possible, it indicates where apparently clear-cut measures of outcome (e.g., union of a fractured tibia) may be vulnerable to confounding factors, such as clinical judgment, age, or recurrent illness. It also indicates areas where there are deficiencies in the currently available instruments. Outcome measures may be broadly distinguished as those used to measure the doctor's assessment and those used to measure the patient's own assessment of a problem; the problems and advantages of these two groups of measurements are addressed in the text. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR