Table 6

Patient-focussed clinical parameters reported in the Reviews

Parameter

% of studies (number of references)

Comments and detail

Patient Factors

Age distribution

(years)

84%

(11 of 13)

• No uniformity of categories [23-26,28,31,33,34], failure to report of full age range [27,30,35]

Sex distribution (M:F)

84%

(11 of 13)

• Reported number and % male & females [23-28,30,31,33-35]

Occupation

23%

(3 of 13)

• Transportation worker, student, farmer, technical worker, service workers [24]

• Worker, farmer, fisher [25]

• Worker, student, farmer/forester/fisher [33]

System Factors

Pre-hospital care

23%

(3 of 13)

• EMS or other [23,24]; medical aid [25]

Factors related to circumstances of injury

Mechanism

100%

• 'Super-categories' (i.e., unintentional, transport)

• Non-uniform use of transport/traffic

Location

23%

(3 of 13)

• Industrial, road/street, home, school [25]

• Road/street; family, operational site [26]

• Operational site; road street [27]

Injury Coding and clinical indicators

Abbreviated Injury Score severity [35]

7.7%

(1 of 13)

• For isolated trauma AIS ≥ 3 [35]

Injury Severity Score [17]

23%

(3 of 13)

• For those admitted to ED, ISS: < 16; 16-24 [33]

• For deaths only [34]

• For multi-trauma ISS ≥ 15 [35]

ICD [18]

None

'Other injury' description

15%

(2 of 13)

• Superficial; open; fracture (not by region) [26]

• Superficial; open; fracture (not by region) [27]

GCS [16]

None

RTS [19]

None

TRISS [20]

None

Outcomes

Mortality

69%

(9 of 13)

• Overall mortality plus traffic separately [29]

• % within 3-months [30]

• Pre-hospital mortality only [33]

• Based on registry log only [34]

• Patient mortality in ED [23,24,28,32,35]

Admission to ICU

None

Length of stay

7.7%

(1 of 13)

• Mean given [28]

Costs

7.7%

(1 of 13)

• Costs per stay [28]

Fitzharris et al. BMC Emergency Medicine 2011 11:18   doi:10.1186/1471-227X-11-18