UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Neurology

Title: Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

Keywords: glasgow coma scale, glasgow coma score, gcs, concsious, head injury (PubMed Search)

Posted: 1/7/2009 by Aisha Liferidge, MD (Updated: 10/10/2024)
Click here to contact Aisha Liferidge, MD

  • Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a validated score intended to provide a reliable and objective method for recording and communicating a patient's consciousness.
  • It was originally created to assess head injury patients' neurologic status/deficit.
  • The scale ranges from 3 (deeply unconscious) to 15 (fully awake).
  • It tests the following three responses:  (1) eye, (2) verbal, and (3) motor, listed in order of increasing functional significance with regard to status (i.e. optimal eye response assigned lower score (best score = 4), followed by a best score of 5 for verbal response, and optimal motor function being scored at 6.