Defining acute aortic syndrome after trauma: Are Abbreviated Injury Scale codes a useful surrogate descriptor?

Background: The severity and location of injuries resulting from vehicular collisions are normally recorded in Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) code; we propose a system to link AIS code to a description of acute aortic syndrome (AAS), thus allowing the hypothesis that aortic injury is progressive with collision kinematics to be tested.

Methods: Standard AIS codes were matched with a clinical description of AAS. A total of 199 collisions that resulted in aortic injury were extracted from a national automotive collision database and the outcomes mapped onto AAS descriptions.

Low-impact scenarios may account for two-thirds of blunt traumatic aortic rupture.

Background: Traditionally, blunt traumatic aortic rupture (BTAR) is thought to be a high-velocity injury. It was hypothesised that BTAR has a higher than suspected incidence in low-speed accidents, with unique kinematic and demographic risk factors.

Methods: Using the UK Cooperative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) framework, impact profiling was undertaken for accidents involving BTAR.

Comparison of injury severity between AIS 2005 and AIS 1990 in a large injury database.

The aim of this study is to investigate the differences in car occupant injury severity recorded in AIS 2005 compared to AIS 1990 and to outline the likely effects on future data analysis findings. Occupant injury data in the UK Cooperative Crash Injury Study Database (CCIS) were coded for the period February 2006 to November 2007 using both AIS 1990 and AIS 2005. Data for 1,994 occupants with over 6000 coded injuries were reviewed at the AIS and MAIS level of severities and body regions to determine changes between the two coding methodologies.

The relationship of AIS to peak virtual power.

All injuries require an expenditure of energy. Here it is postulated that injury severity is proportional to Peak Virtual Power (PVP). PVP is compared to AIS scores for frontal impact with belted drivers, for all types of injuries and all body regions, from the Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) and NASS-CDS databases.