Glasgow Coma Scale in Pre-verbal Children

I read an interesting article this morning on the Use of the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale in Pre-verbal Children with Blunt Head Trauma. James F. Holmes, M.D. MPH and his colleagues from the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, investigated whether the accuracy of pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale score in pre-verbal children with blunt head trauma compared favorably with the standard glasgo coma scale score in older children. The authors perspectively enrolled children younger than 18 years with blunt head trauma.

According to the study, the patients were divided into cohorts of two years and younger and those older than two years. The authors assigned a pediatric GCS score to the younger cohort and the standard GSC score to the older cohort. The authors concluded that the pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale for children two years and younger compared favorably with the standard GCS in the evaluation of children with blunt head trauma. The Pediatric GCS was found to be particularly accurate in evaluating pre-verbal children with blunt head trauma with regard to the need for acute intervention. Acad Emerg Med Volume 12, Number 9 814-819 (2005).