Citation

Rimel RW, Alves WM, Jane JA. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1982; 26: 1-14.

Affiliation

University of Virginia, Department of Neurosurgery, Charlottesville, Va, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 1982, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During a twenty month period 1331 patients sustaining central nervous system (CNS) trauma were admitted to the University of Virginia Medical Center. The data base consists of 80% head injuries, 12% spine injuries and 8% combined head/spine injuries which represents all such injuries occuring in a well-defined geographic area. This report focuses on 645 patients who were injured in vehicular accidents (87% automobile and 13% two-axle truck). The injured person was most often the driver of the vehicle (59%). Sixty-one percent of patients tested had a positive blood alcohol level on admission and 51% of this group were legally intoxicated (blood ETOH>.10%). Automobiles were placed in four categories based on wheel base size from subcompact to full size. Fifty-four percent of those injured were in either intermediate or full size cars.

The severity of neurologic injury was measured with the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). While the literature shows that the relative risk of being injured at all in a smaller v. larger vehicle is greater, (20,21) our findings in patients with CNS injuries DO NOT support previous studies that persons in smaller vehicles are more severely injured.

Language: en