Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

This article is currently under review.

This gives a reliable, objective way of recording the conscious state of a person.¹ It can be used by medical and nursing staff for initial and continuing assessment. It has value in predicting ultimate outcome. Three types of response are independently assessed and are recorded on an appropriate chart (and the overall score is made by summing the scores).

There is a Paediatric Glasgow Coma Scale applicable to infants too young to speak - and the equivalent infant responses are given in the various sections below.²

GCS is avalable here

Some centres score GCS out of 14, not 15, omitting "withdrawal to pain".
As well as the total figure the GCS can be expressed as subscores: GCS=15; M6,V5,E4 (motor, verbal and eye-opening responses)

Acknowledgements EMIS is grateful to Dr Huw Thomas for writing this article. The final copy has passed scrutiny by the independent Mentor GP reviewing team. ©EMIS 2009.
Document ID: 2197
Document Version: 22
Document Reference: bgp1311
Last Updated: 30 Jun 2009
Planned Review: 29 Jun 2014