Abstract: The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was introduced in 1974 as a measure of a patient’s level of consciousness. Before the development of this scale, the level of consciousness was described by terms like superposed, comatose, semi-comatose, obtunded, decerebrate, etc. These terms were ill-defined, confusing and not comparable between different observers. The GCS is a simple and reliable measure of the level of consciousness. Once the medical and nursing staff is trained, the inter-observer variability is low.
This scale went on to be accepted and used by most of the neurosurgical units worldwide. The Institute of Neurological sciences Glasgow is a world leader, in brain injury research and clinical care. In 1974, Professor Jennet and Mr. Teasdale of this institute published a paper in the lancet on the assessment of coma and impaired consciousness. This paper proposed a structured…
