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Invited Commentary
SURGICAL CARE OF THE AGING POPULATION
July 2014

Glasgow Coma Scale 40 Years Later: In Need of Recalibration?

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 2Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
JAMA Surg. 2014;149(7):734. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2014.47

In 1974, the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was first validated in adult (mean age, 33 years) patients using repeated measurements during the course of a week.1,2 According to the original authors, “repeated assessment of responsiveness is essential in the monitoring of the patient with a head injury.”2(p878) Since then, this scale has not been modified, and reliance on a single value has been shown repeatedly to be poorly calibrated for outcome, especially in the elderly.3,4

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