Abstract
The numbers of victims of road traffic accidents with minor and severe (hospital stay > 24 hours) injuries as well as fatalities are documented by the national statistics department. However, those with really life-threatening injuries are not documented separately, and their total number could only be estimated improperly. There are also different definitions for this patient group in use, mostly based on type and severity of injuries. Based on data from the Trauma Registry of The German Society for Trauma Surgery (DGU) the present investigation aims to compare these different definitions, and to estimate the total number of this patient group in Germany with different methods. (Author/publisher)