Glasgow Coma Scale

Assessing the state of consciousness of a patient who has suffered traumatic brain injury is often done by emergency medical responders and physicians shortly after an accident.  The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) assists a medical team to have an objective assessment of the extent of consciousness of the victim. The scale helps the team to conclude the degree to which the patient is conscious or comatose.

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is also known by another name – Glasgow Coma Score. The scale uses a rating method ranging from 3 to 15, where the higher level of consciousness is denoted by a higher score. An example can explain this better. A healthy conscious adult would have a score of 15 but a completely unconscious individual would get a score of 3.

To assess the medical condition of a patient who has suffered a traumatic brain injury in the immediate past, the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) provides invaluable help to doctors and emergency room staff. Of course the scale is also frequently used by other streams of the medical fraternity including doctors attached to intensive care units, EMTs and healthcare providers responsible for chronic care.

Glascow Coma Scale – how did it begin?

It took two professors of neurosurgery, Graham Teasdale and Bryan J. Jennett, teaching at the University of Glasgow to come up with the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) in 1974. With years of experience in the field of management of head trauma and brain injuries, the duo even published a book called Management of Head Injuries in 1981.

Teasdale and Jennett’s untiring work on the subject has helped millions of doctors round the world to successfully diagnose and treat comatose patients who have been victims of head trauma and brain injuries. Their work has also provided inspiration and motivation to other researchers and doctors to design similar diagnostic tools, especially the Rancho Los Amigos Scale. This scale is one of the most efficient tools to assess traumatic brain injuries or TBI.

Glascow Coma Scasle – how it does what it does

The state of consciousness of a brain-injured patient is assessed by the GCS using a 15-point rating method as mentioned earlier. The scale works by allotting points to the several physical responses received from the victim. These include evaluating his sense of vision, verbal responses and other motor skills. The table below shows how the point allotment is done by the GCS.

Physical Response

To clear any ambiguity in the assessment of level of consciousness between children and adults, since both can suffer from the same condition of loss of consciousness, the GCS has included a special feature for examining the verbal ability of the patient. The verbal ability of the respondent is then adjusted in the point rating according to categories as mentioned below:

• 1 point: Zero response or silent
• 2 points: Groans or snorts
• 3 points: Continuous crying. Babies would cry even with positive stimuli
• 4 points: Incoherent murmuring. Babies cry at the right time and responds well when comforted.
• 5 points: No speech impairment. Infants smile and blabber.

Though allocating points to the different consciousness levels and relating it to the correct condition may seem easy, the job of categorizing the patients may not be as simple. For example, when the eyes are inflamed after a traumatic head injury, doctors find it difficult to assess the visual responses of the patient.

Therefore doctors might have to use the GCS several times on a patient with head trauma and brain injuries to decipher the precise condition of the individual and also to identify the emerging needs.

Related posts:

1. Coma from Traumatic Brain Injury
2. Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries
3. Moderate Brain Injury
4. Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Due to Brain Injury
5. Severe Brain Injury

If you would like more information about your rights after a Michigan brain injury, you can order our FREE book, "The Ultimate Guide To Injury Cases In Michigan" by clicking on the book link. We will send it out immediately along with other important information.

For more information about Michigan brain injury cases, visit our Michigan personal injury, car accident, and malpractice law website. If you would like to speak with one of our Michigan brain injury attorneys about your case, feel free to call us anytime at (800) 606-1717 or simply submit this contact form and we will get back to you quickly.

BUCKFIRE & BUCKFIRE, P.C. is a Michigan personal injury law firm and is not representing any of the parties mentioned in this article at the time of the posting of the article. The information contained in this article is from online news sources and any perceived misstatements should be attributed to those sources as we did not complete any investigation of the accident. If you believe that the information is inaccurate and would like it changed or would like this post completely removed from the site, please let us know and we will do our best to promptly accommodate your request. We are very sensitive to these requests.

If you were involved in this accident or a similar accident and have questions about your legal rights and options, it is important that you contact a reputable law firm. Please make sure that any Michigan law firm that you contact has significant experience in handling these types of accident and injury cases and has an excellent track record of successful settlements and jury verdicts. We also suggest that the attorney you contact provides you with a free initial consultation.