Clinical tool
GCS
Glasgow Coma Scale from eye, verbal and motor responses.
Eye opening
Verbal response
Motor response
Choose an eye, verbal and motor response to see the Glasgow Coma Scale.
What this calculates
The Glasgow Coma Scale: the sum of the best eye, verbal and motor responses, from 3 to 15.
When to use it
To describe and track level of consciousness, especially after head injury or in any acutely altered patient.
How to interpret it
13 to 15 is mild impairment, 9 to 12 moderate and 3 to 8 severe. The individual components (for example E3 V3 M5) carry more information than the total and should be recorded with it.
Important limitations
- Eye swelling, intubation, sedation, aphasia, deafness and paralysis can make a component untestable or misleading.
- A single score is a snapshot: trend over time matters more than any one value.
- Severity bands describe responsiveness, not the cause, and do not replace a full neurological assessment.
For practising medics only. Clinical tools support judgement, they do not replace it. Always verify results against current guidelines and the patient in front of you.