Does injury pattern among major road trauma patients influence prehospital transport decisions regardless of the distance to the nearest trauma centre? – a retrospective study

Table 1 Theoretical representation of injury patterns for ISS ≥ 13 or in-hospital fatalities

Injury pattern	AIS region and level of severity
	Head & Neck			Face			Thorax			Abdomen			Spine			Upper extremities			Lower extremities			External
	2	3	4+	2	3	4	2	3	4+	2	3	4+	2	3	4+	2	3	4+	2	3	4+	2	3	4+
Head isolated^a	O	O	C1
Head 3+ & other 4+	O	C1	C1	O	O	C2	O	O	C2	O	O	C2	O	O	C2	O	O	C2	O	O	C2	O	O	C2
Head 3+ thorax 3+ & other	O	C1	C1	O	O		O	C1		O	O		O	O		O	O		O	O		O	O
Head 3+ face 2, 3 & other	O	C1	C1	C2	C2		O			O	O		O	O		O	O		O	O		O	O
Head 3+ & other	O	C1	C1				C2			C2	C2		C2	C2		C2	C2		C2	C2		C2	C2
Spine 3+ & other	O			O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	C1	C1	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O	O
Other 4+^b	O			O	O	C1	O	O	C1	O	O	C1	O			O	O	C1	O	O	C1	O	O	C1
Abdomen 2, 3 & other^c	O			O	C2		O	C2		C1			O			O	C2		O	C2		O	C2
	C2			C2	C2		C2	C2		O	C1		C2			C2	C2		C2	C2		C2	C2
Thorax 3 & other	C2			C2	C2		O	C1					C2			C2	C2		C2	C2		C2	C2
Other^a,b	C2			O	C1		C2						C2			O	C1		O	C1		O	C1

C1 (Criterion 1) indicate injuries that had to be present for the patient to be included in that injury pattern, and C2 (Criterion 2) indicates that at least one of these injuries had to be present for the patient to be included in that injury pattern. Other possible injury (O) can be present or not
^aInclude fatalities ISS ≥ 4 with MAIS 2 or 3
^bAt least one of C1
^cFirst row if AIS 2, second row if AIS 3