Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

The Scale
This scale is very commonly used. Although originally developed for TBI, it is frequently used as a general measure of consciousness. It has some problems, however. Several of the items, such as motor response are not definitively related to consciousness. Most problematic is the Verbal section, as these remain untestable in intubated patients. The Full Outline of Unresponsiveness (FOUR) score was developed to solve some of these issues but is not as widely used. Both scores can be used to predict mortality, and are comparable to each other in their abilities to predict this.