We identified articles through searches of PubMed, Science Direct, Ovid Medline, Embase, OVID, and CINAHL, with use of the search terms “Glasgow Coma Scale” or “Glasgow Coma Score” separately, and in combination with “review articles”. We included articles published up to Nov 1, 2013. We also identified papers from the authors' own files and from references cited in relevant articles. We generated the final reference list on the basis of articles' relevance to the topic of this Personal View.
Personal ViewThe Glasgow Coma Scale at 40 years: standing the test of time
Introduction
It is now difficult to envisage the chaos that characterised the assessment of patients with a head injury or other acute brain insult before the mid-1970s. Repeated observation of, what was termed at that time, conscious level was regarded as essential, but collection and exchange of data were undermined by ill-defined and inconsistent methods. Most investigators sought to divide the spectrum of altered consciousness into different constellations of discrete levels on the basis of terms such as comatose, sub-comatose, obtundation, stupor, semi-purposeful, and posturing. These terms now seem perplexingly vague and obscure. As a result, there were delays in detection of clinical changes,1 avoidable morbidity and mortality,2 and barriers to drawing reliable conclusions from research findings.
40 years ago, the description in The Lancet3 of what was later termed the Glasgow Coma Scale aimed to address the confusion resulting from these vague terms by proposing a practical approach, likely to be widely acceptable, through structured assessment of defined responses to stimuli. In this Personal View, we will examine the extent to which the original aspirations of the authors have been fulfilled, address some myths and misapprehensions, examine criticisms, and give our view of the continuing role of the scale in research and clinical practice. Although the scale has found wide application, our main focus is on its use in adults with traumatic brain injury, for whom most data are available.
Section snippets
Development and adoption of the scale
The rumour that the Glasgow Coma Scale was conceived in a bar in Glasgow is, sadly, not true.4 Its development began in 1971, as an instrument to improve the clinical care of people with acute brain injury and to increase understanding of the prognosis of those with severe brain damage.
The research that produced the scale took place in the Neurosurgical Unit at the Institute of Neurological Sciences in Glasgow, UK, a multidisciplinary clinical unit that provided specialist services in the west
Scaling, scoring, and classifying with the Glasgow Coma Scale
Soon after the description of the scale, each level of response was assigned a number—the worse the response, the lower the number. The steps in the eye opening, verbal response, and motor response subscales could then be communicated as three numbers (eg, E1, V2, M3, etc), allowing entry of clinical findings into a computer-based databank.11 The convenience of summing the separate scores into a single total score was soon recognised.17 This total score provided a useful overview for clinicians
Validity: relation to other indices and measures of severity
Without a gold standard for the evaluation of consciousness, the validity of the Glasgow Coma Scale as an indicator of severity is commonly obtained through the assessment of the relation between its score and other early clinical, functional metabolic, or structural features, and outcome (table 2,26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 figure 2, figure 3). Clinically, the duration of post-traumatic amnesia34 is a classic index for the severity of brain dysfunction after an injury, and lower values in
Reliability and confounders
After 40 years of use, and with the evolution of its applications, some investigators have had reservations and made critical comments about the Glasgow Coma Scale.50, 51, 52 When the Glasgow Coma Scale was devised the discipline of clinimetrics had not yet been developed.53 Subsequent systematic analyses54, 55, 56 yielded largely supportive conclusions about its composition and effectiveness, including its validation by acceptance.55 However, a consistent criticism has been variation in
Use of the Glasgow Coma Scale in clinical practice
Modern management of a patient with an acute brain injury is based on an anticipatory approach, aiming to identify and deal with sources of potential worsening rather than to react to adverse developments. For example, space-occupying haematomas should preferably be operated on before brainstem herniation occurs. Assessment of conscious level has a key role in clinical monitoring and in risk assessment for the presence of structural abnormalities. This is shown by the increasing yield of
Recommendations for use
The Glasgow Coma Scale assesses the level of consciousness in patients and should be distinguished from the overall coma score (numerical sum of the three components of the scale), which can be used for comparisons of groups. The scale is an effective instrument to monitor trends in level of consciousness. Ratings of the three individual components should be monitored, reported, and communicated separately (preferably in words but, with care, as a number). The displacement of graphical
Conclusions and future research
The Glasgow Coma Scale has evolved into a clinical instrument with several applications, including risk assessment, trend monitoring, classification, and prognosis. After 40 years, wide use of the scale supports its validation by acceptance55 and indicates that its creators have achieved many of their original aims. The Lancet article of 1974 was identified as a leading ‘citation classic’ in 2010.87, 88 An update in January, 2014, again using the Web of Science (appendix), showed a continuing
Search strategy and selection criteria
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Part 2: early indicators of prognosis in severe traumatic brain injury
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Increase in apparent diffusion coefficient in normal appearing white matter following human traumatic brain injury correlates with injury severity
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Evoked potentials in severe head injury–analysis and relation to outcome
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GFAP-BDP as an acute diagnostic marker in traumatic brain injury: results from the prospective TRACK-TBI Study
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Observations on the differential diagnosis and treatment of cerebral states consequent upon head injuries
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Assessment of post-traumatic amnesia after severe closed head injury: retrospective or prospective?
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
Dissociation of cerebral glucose metabolism and level of consciousness during the period of metabolic depression following human traumatic brain injury
J Neurotrauma
Correlation of regional metabolic rates of glucose with Glasgow Coma Scale after traumatic brain injury
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