GLASCOW COMA SCALE  [ back to Glossary Index ]
Glasgow Coma Scale was developed by Teasdale and Jennett in 1972 to provide a universal, quantitative yardstick for measuring the severity of trauma-induced disturbances consciousness. Patients are scored as to their observed level of responsiveness in the three categories of eye opening, basic motor and basic verbal . Persons with severe TBI in varying depths of coma are in the 3-8 range; persons with moderate TBI are in the 9-12; and mild TBI in the 13-15. Merely being alive gets you a 3. "Normal" people get a 15. The rating applies only at the time the measure is taken; and its purpose is limited to predicting the risk of death   vs. probability of survival, and deciding which patients need hospitalization either for  immediate CT scanning in anticipation of emergency neurosurgery or for stabilization and observation. GCS scores are very helpful clinically to ambulance and hospital personnel. However, they are very susceptible of misinterpretation and misuse in the litigation context. For example, a person who had a concussion but scores 15 on the GCS when tested in the field some 20-30 minutes after a car wreck, cannot be excluded from the diagnosis of mild TBI, as is heard so often in the courtroom from defense medical experts.