Understanding the Glasgow Coma Scale The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is used to assess a patient's level of consciousness, alertness, and responsiveness. It helps evaluate traumatic brain injuries and altered states of consciousness by measuring eye opening response, verbal response, and motor response.
Scoring System for GCS Patients can score between 3 to 15 on the GCS. A higher score indicates better alertness and wakefulness. Scores below 8 indicate coma status requiring intubation while a score of 3 signifies deep coma with high mortality rate.
Assessing Eye Opening Response Eye opening responses are assessed using stimuli such as spontaneous eye opening or applying pressure to the nail bed. The scale ranges from four points for spontaneous eye opening down to one point if there is no response even after applying pressure stimulus.
Verbal and Motor Responses Evaluation 'Verbal' responses range from oriented (5 points) down to no verbal response (1 point). 'Motor' responses vary from obeying commands successfully (6 points) down through different types of abnormal posturing based on painful stimuli applied during assessment.