Paediatric Glasgow Coma Scale

The Paediatric Glasgow Coma Scale or the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Score or simply PGCS is the equivalent of the Glasgow Coma Scale used to assess the level of consciousness of child patients. As many of the assessments for an adult patient would not be appropriate for infants, the Glasgow Coma Scale was modified slightly to form the PGCS. As with the GCS, the PGCS comprises three tests: eye, verbal and motor responses. The three values separately as well as their sum are considered. The lowest possible PGCS is 3 whilst the highest is 15. The pediatric GCS is commonly used in emergency medical services.
In patients who are intubated, unconscious, or preverbal, the motor response is considered the most important component of the scale.

Coma scale

	1	2	3	4	5	6
Eyes	Does not open eyes	Opens eyes in response to painful stimuli	Opens eyes in response to speech	Opens eyes spontaneously	N/A	N/A
Verbal	No verbal response	Inconsolable, agitated	Inconsistently inconsolable, moaning	Cries but consolable, inappropriate interactions	Smiles, orients to sounds, follows objects, interacts	N/A
Motor	No motor response	Extension to pain	Abnormal flexion to pain for an infant	Infant withdraws from pain	Infant withdraws from touch	Infant moves spontaneously or purposefully

Any combined score of less than eight represents a significant risk of mortality. A score of 12 or below indicates a severe head injury. A score of less than 8 indicates that intubation and ventilation may be necessary. A score of 6 or below indicates that intracranial pressure monitoring may be necessary.