Examples of injury severity

Anatomic region	Mild	Moderate	Severe
Head	Fall <3 feet or from standing height Blow to head with no LOC and small hematoma	Blow to head with brief LOC Superficial penetrating injury to the scalp (BB gunshot wound)	Blunt head trauma with GCS ≤12 Intracranial penetrating head trauma
Neck	Restrained passenger of MVC with <20 mph (32 kph) force	Pedestrian hit by a car Bicyclist hit by a car Fall >10 feet or 3x standing height Penetrating injury not deep to the platysma muscle	Blunt neck trauma with palpable stepoff or neurologic deficit Diving injury with neck pain and paresthesias down both arms Penetrating neck trauma deep to the platysma muscle
Thorax	Punch to chest wall with superficial bruise and normal respirations	Pleuritic pain or significant bony tenderness after blunt trauma	Blunt trauma with hypoxemia or dyspnea Penetrating chest trauma with shock
Abdomen	Hit in the stomach by a soccer ball kicked by a playmate	Blunt trauma with abdominal tenderness or hematuria Restrained MVC passenger with a contusion from the seat belt Penetrating wound superficial to the peritoneum	Blunt trauma with shock Penetrating trauma deep to the peritoneum
Extremities	Fall on outstretched hand with no deformity Inverted ankle with lateral malleolar swelling but no deformity	Extremity injury with obvious deformity	Crush injury with pallor and pain Penetrating injury with vascular compromise

LOC: loss of consciousness; GCS: Glasgow coma scale; MVC: motor vehicle collision.

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