Meta-analysis of the effect of tertiary survey on missed injury rate in trauma patients

The best available evidence demonstrates a constant trend in favour of tertiary survey in terms of missed injury reduction, and supports its use in management of trauma patients. Further studies are required to clarify the most cost-effective and systematic way of addressing missed injuries in the first 24 h. We recommend use of “missed injury detection rate” and “missed injury rate” as two different outcomes in future studies in order to address the issue of heterogeneity in definition of missed injury in the current literature.