PAINE - May 14, 2016
"The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was first devised in 1974 and has been the predominant neurologic scoring system since. It takes into account 3 main variables and each variable has a point score attached to it. The maximum score is 15 and the minimum score is 3 (3T if intubated)...
The GCS was never designed to be used for acute injury. It was created to monitor changes in neurologic status of patients in a neurosurgical unit and was not designed to have the 3 individual variables combined into one score. Here are the important limitations of the GCS...
Bottom Line
GCS is essentially worthless clinically even when it is calculated correctly. Simplified scores give just as much information, are easier to use, and are just as predictive. But….you will always be asked “what is the patient’s GCS”, in spite of the growing evidence against it.