Acute injury scaling related to residual disability.

Injury scaling is an important issue in the traffic safety field. A comparison was made between the severity of injuries as graded according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and the severity 5 years after the accident. It was found that among persons with permanent medical disability greater than or equal to 10%, 20% were given an AIS score of 1, i.e. they were initially judged as having a slight injury. This implies that the AIS scale needs to be re-evaluated to take into account possible long-term consequences.