Glasgow Coma Scale

DEFINITION

The Glasgow Coma Scale GCS) was first published by Glasgow-based Teasdale & Jennett (1974) to assess head trauma and to help keep track of patients' progress over a period of time. The Scale will evaluates the patient's level of awareness, which indirectly indicates the extent of neurologic injury.The scale is comprised of three tests: eye, verbal and motor responses. The three values separately as well as their sum are considered.

The GCS is scored between 3 and 15, 3 being the worst, and 15 the best.


COMPONENT OF GCS

Eye Opening Response

• Spontaneous--open with blinking at baseline 4 points
• To verbal stimuli, command, speech 3 points
• To pain only (not applied to face) 2 points
• No response 1 point

Verbal Response

• Oriented 5 points
• Confused conversation, but able to answer questions 4 points
• Inappropriate words 3 points
• Incomprehensible speech 2 points
• No response 1 point

Motor Response

• Obeys commands for movement 6 points
• Purposeful movement to painful stimulus 5 points
• Withdraws in response to pain 4 points
• Flexion in response to pain (decorticate posturing) 3 points
• Extension response in response to pain (decerebrate posturing) 2 points
• No response 1 point

CATEGORIZATION

The sum obtained in this scale is used to the assess Coma and Impaired consciousness

• Mild: score 13 - 15 points
• Moderate: score 9 - 12 points
• Severe: score 3 - 8 points
• Coma: score less than 8 points