Background: Hospital administrative databases are a useful source of populationlevel data on injured patients; however, these databases use the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system, which does not provide a direct means of estimating injury severity. We created and validated a crosswalk to derive Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores from injury-related diagnostic codes in the tenth revision of the ICD (ICD-10). Methods:We assessed the validity of the crosswalk using data from the Ontario Trauma Registry Comprehensive Data Set (OTR-CDS). The AIS and Injury Severity Scores (ISS) derived using the algorithm were compared with those assigned by expert abstractors. We evaluated the ability of the algorithm to identify patients with AIS scores of 3 or greater. We used κ and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) as measures of concordance.Results: In total, 10 431 patients were identified in the OTR-CDS. The algorithm accurately identified patients with at least 1 AIS score of 3 or greater (κ 0.65), as well as patients with a head AIS score of 3 or greater (κ 0.78). Mapped and abstracted ISS were similar; ICC across the entire cohort was 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.81-0.84), indicating good agreement. When comparing mapped and abstracted ISS, the difference between scores was 10 or less in 87% of patients. Concordance between mapped and abstracted ISS was similar across strata of age, mechanism of injury and mortality. Conclusion:Our ICD-10-to-AIS algorithm produces reliable estimates of injury severity from data available in administrative databases. This algorithm can facilitate the use of administrative data for population-based injury research in jurisdictions using ICD-10.Contexte : Les bases de données administratives des hôpitaux sont des sources utiles pour obtenir des données démographiques au sujet des patients victimes de blessures; ces bases de données utilisent toutefois le système de classification internationale des maladies (CIM) qui ne permet pas d'estimer directement la gravité des blessures. Nous avons créé et validé un tableau de concordance pour établir les scores de la listetype des blessures (LTB) à partir des codes de diagnostics liés aux traumatismes cités dans la dixième révision du manuel CIM (CIM-10).

Research efforts and activities to prevent severe pediatric trauma in our region should focus on road safety, protection from head injuries, avoidance of falls, and prevention of child abuse.

Despite controversy surrounding the concept of mild head injury (MHI), it is becoming evident that even a head trauma termed 'mild' may result in significant behavioural sequelae. The present study was an attempt at documenting structural cerebral damage, by way of computerized tomography, in a group of patients having suffered a MHI as defined by the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. A 1-year retrospective chart review identified 80 MHI patients who presented to the Emergency department of a lead hospital for trauma. Sixty-six per cent of these MHI patients were scanned. Evidence of intracranial abnormalities was obtained in 31% of the overall sample. Patients with a lower GCS score had a higher percentage of abnormal scans than those with a GCS score of either 14 or 15. The present findings suggest that a MHI can be associated with significant morbidity, and that a MHI group does not constitute a homogeneous pool of patients.