| Abbreviated Injury Scale | |
| Purpose: | Classify and describe the severity of injuries. |
| Test Of: | Threat to life |
The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) is an anatomical-based coding system created by the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine to classify and describe the severity of injuries.[1] [2] [3] It represents the threat to life associated with the injury rather than the comprehensive assessment of the severity of the injury.[4] AIS is one of the most common anatomic scales for traumatic injuries.[5]
The first version of the scale was published in 1969[6] with major updates in 1976, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1998, 2005, 2008[7] and 2015.[8]
The score describes three aspects of the injury using seven numbers written as 12(34)(56).7[4]
Each number signifies
| AIS Code | Region | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Head | |
| 2 | Face | |
| 3 | Neck | |
| 4 | Thorax | |
| 5 | Abdomen | |
| 6 | Spine | |
| 7 | Upper Extremity | |
| 8 | Lower Extremity | |
| 9 | Unspecified |
| AIS Code | Region | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whole Area | |
| 2 | Vessels | |
| 3 | Nerves | |
| 4 | Organs (inc. muscles/ligaments) | |
| 5 | Skeletal (inc. joints) | |
| 6 | Loss of Consciousness (head only) |
| Whole Area | ||
|---|---|---|
| AIS Code | Region | |
| 02 | Skin Abrasion | |
| 04 | Contusion | |
| 06 | Laceration | |
| 08 | Avulsion | |
| 10 | Amputation | |
| 20 | Burn | |
| 30 | Crush | |
| 40 | Degloving | |
| 50 | Injury - NFS | |
| 60 | Penetrating | |
| Head - Loss of Consciousness (LOC) | ||
| 02 | Length of loss of consciousness | |
| 04-08 | Level of consciousness | |
| 10 | Concussion | |
| Spine | ||
| 02 | Cervical | |
| 04 | Thoracic | |
| 06 | Lumbar | |
| Vessels, Nerves, Organs, Bones, Joints | ||
| 02 | Vessels | |
| 04 | Nerves | |
| 06 | Organs | |
| 08 | Bones | |
| 10 | Joints |
Abbreviated Injury Score-Code is on a scale of one to six, one being a minor injury and six being maximal (currently untreatable).[1] An AIS-Code of 6 is not the arbitrary code for a deceased patient or fatal injury, but the code for injuries specifically assigned an AIS 6 severity.[1] An AIS-Code of 9 is used to describe injuries for which not enough information is available for more detailed coding, e.g. crush injury to the head.
The AIS scale is a measurement tool for single injuries. A universally accepted injury aggregation function has not yet been proposed, though the injury severity score and its derivatives are better aggregators for use in clinical settings.[1] [5] In other settings such as automotive design and occupant protection, MAIS is a useful tool for the comparison of specific injuries and their relative severity and the changes in those frequencies that may result from evolving motor vehicle design.[1]
| AIS-Code | Injury | Example | AIS % prob. of death | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minor | superficial laceration | 0.1-1 | |
| 2 | Moderate | fractured sternum | 1-2 | |
| 3 | Serious | open fracture of humerus | 2-16 | |
| 4 | Severe | perforated trachea | 16-30 | |
| 5 | Critical | ruptured liver with tissue loss | 30-99 | |
| 6 | Fatal | total severance of aorta | 100 | |
| 9 | Not further specified (NFS) |
The European Union defined the MAIS3+ as the maximum abbreviated injury scale (MAIS) with a score of 3 or more. The definition was used to harmonize count of serious injuries or serious road injury in different member States (see Killed or Seriously Injured). Since 2017 Valletta Council conclusions on road safety, States started collecting those numbers. This need use of hospital data rather than police data.[9]
Those data can be computed in three different ways:
Previously each State had a different definition of a serious injury.[10]
It has been estimated that 110,000 people were seriously injured in traffic collisions on the roads of European Union member States in 2019, based on MAIS3+ definition.