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The national trauma triage criteria for transport to a trauma center include mechanism of injury (MOI) in addition to physiologic, anatomic, and patient specific factors. Investigators studied 3569 patients who were transported to a single designated level I trauma center based on MOI alone during a 10-year period to determine the correlation between MOI and need for trauma center care. Trauma center need was defined as death, Injury Severity Score >15, blood transfusion in the emergency department, intensive care unit admission, surgery (laparotomy, thoracotomy, vascular) within 24 hours of arrival, neurosurgical intervention during admission, pelvic fracture, or two or more long bone fractures.
Overall, 821 patients (23%) met the definitio…