The Abbreviated Injury Scale is well described: A letter to the Editor re: Loftis et al., “Evolution of the Abbreviated Injury Scale: 1990–2015”

Abstract

Objective: A recent study published in this journal has provided a description and summary of changes made to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) through the 5 latest versions. However, there has already been a considerable body of related research published during the past decade.

Methods: A brief narrative review of recent research in this field is presented.

Results: Over the past decade, considerable research has been undertaken to describe the code set differences that have arisen between different AIS versions. Much of this research has been focused on developing or evaluating mapping tools to provide continuity in how the AIS has been used to describe injury over time. In addition, severity changes and changes by body region have also been summarized for some AIS versions.

Conclusions: The changes that have been successively introduced to the AIS since 1990 have been well documented, and validated strategies to enable registries to adjust for AIS change are well established. However, further research into the effects of adopting the latest (2015) AIS version is encouraged.

Keywords:

• AIS
• injury coding
• versions
• AIS mapping

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In response to: A letter to the Editor re: Loftis et al, 'Evolution of the Abbreviated Injury Scale: 1990–2015' from Mr. Palmer