Use of alcohol intoxication codes for serious non-fatal hospitalised injury.

Aim: To determine the extent to which ICD-10 alcohol intoxication codes are used for serious hospitalised injury and the distribution of these codes according to gender, age, injury mechanism and intent, severity of injury, and whether the patient was treated in an Intensive Care Unit.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: New Zealand.
Participants: All injury hospital discharges in 2010 that met specified severity criteria.
Measurements: Cases which had a measurement of BAC (Y90) coded, or only a subjective assessment of alcohol intoxication (F10.0).
Findings: 2.5% had a blood alcohol recorded (Y90) and a further 3% were coded as being intoxicated but there was no blood alcohol code. All factors investigated were shown to be independently associated with the assignation of codes. Notable findings were the elevated odds of an alcohol code for males, assault and the more severe injuries.
Conclusions: Assessment of alcohol intoxication among seriously injured persons appears to be very uncommon. The development of a standardised instrument for clinical judgement of intoxication would be highly desirable.
(Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)