Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is the most common scoring system used to describe the level of consciousness in a person following a traumatic brain injury.

GCS scores range from 3-15 based on totaling scores from three categories:

Eyes Open:
- Spontaneous: 4
- To speech: 3
- To pain: 2
- Never: 1

Verbal Response:
- Oriented: 5
- Confused: 4
- Inappropriate words: 3
- Incomprehensible speech: 2
- No response: 1

Motor Response:
- Obeys commands: 6
- Localized pain: 5
- Withdrawal: 4
- Abnormal: 3
- Extension to pain: 2
- None: 1

The lowest Glasgow Coma Scale score within the first 24 hours of injury is used to help gauge the severity of an acute brain injury, along with the duration of unconsciousness and the duration of post-traumatic amnesia:
- Mild: 13-15
- Moderate: 9-12
- Severe: 3-8