MacKenzie et used several clinical parameters including age, Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and type of injury to determine if a patient should be triaged to a trauma center or treated at the local community hospital. The authors are from the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University.
Regions for the AIS:
(1) external
(2) head
(3) neck
(4) thorax
(5) abdominal or pelvic contents
(6) spine
(7) extremities
Injury Severity |
Abbreviated Injury Score |
minor injury |
1 |
moderate injury |
2 |
severe but not life-threatening |
3 |
potentially life-threatening but survival likely |
4 |
critical with uncertain survival |
5 |
unsurvivable injury |
6 |
severity unknown |
9 |
Triage rules:
Maximum AIS |
Age |
Other |
Triage To |
<= 2 in <= 2 regions |
any |
|
non-trauma |
>= 2 in >= 3 regions |
any |
|
trauma |
>=3 in >= 1 region |
< 5 years |
|
trauma |
>=3 in >= 1 region |
>= 55 years |
not closed hip fracture; fall from height |
trauma |
3 in 1 body region |
>= 55 |
closed hip fracture; not fall from height |
non-trauma |
3 in 1 or 2 body regions |
5 - 54 years |
not excluded |
non-trauma |
3 in 1 or 2 body regions |
5 - 54 years |
excluded |
trauma |
>= 4 in >= 1 region |
any |
|
trauma |
>=5 burn |
|
|
burn center |
>=4 burn and >=5 in other regions |
|
|
trauma then burn |
where:
• Vassar et al modified the table by (1) using AIS >= 3 in >= 3 body regions for second entry (not used) and (2) fall from height data (used).
• I modified the burn criteria in the implementation, changing from >= 5 to >= 4.
Excluded for AIS 3 in 1 body region:
(1) AIS 3 to head, spine, or thorax
(2) AIS 3 to abdomen with hemorrhage (hypovolemia producing)
(3) AIS 3 pelvic fracture
(4) AIS 3 crush injury in extremity
(5) AIS 3 extremity injury with major vascular involvement
Specialty: Surgery, orthopedic, Emergency Medicine, Critical Care, Surgery, general
ICD-10: ,