Glasgow Coma Scale 50th Anniversary

The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the description of the Glasgow Coma Scale. The introduction of the scale, known universally as the GCS, was a major medical milestone, with a genuine global impact, representing a paradigm shift in the evaluation of the unconscious patient.

In their landmark paper published in the Lancet in 1974 ‘Assessment of coma and impaired consciousness. A practical scale’, neurosurgeons Graham Teasdale and Bryan Jennett described a new approach to the assessment of consciousness, a pragmatic scale based on 3 domains; eye opening, verbal performance, and motor response. Before the GCS, there was no consistent, reliable and universally accepted way to evaluate the patient in coma. Once the scale was introduced, it allowed health professionals to record consciousness in a concise and objective fashion, and to communicate with each other in a way that is universally understood. The genius of the GCS lies in its simplicity, reliability and effectiveness. The GCS remains highly relevant today, and continues to be used in every hospital in the world.

The GCS put the Institute of Neurological Sciences and Glasgow on the map, and we wish to celebrate this historic achievement. We invite you to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow on Thursday 27th June 2024 to join with us and Sir Graham Teasdale for an academic celebration of the Glasgow Coma Scale, featuring GCS-themed presentations from a panel of renowned speakers.

For any questions, please email [email protected] or call + 44 (0)845 388 1599.

Profits will be donated to the Hope Foundation and Headway. Please note that tickets are non-refundable.

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