A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GLASGOW COMA SCALE SCORE WITH FULL OUTLINE OF UNRESPONSIVENESS SCORE IN ASSESSMENT OF PATIENTS WITH TRAUMATIC HEAD INJURY IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE STUDY

Background: Neurological assessment of traumatic brain injury patients is of prime importance as it affects the therapeutic and prognostic decisions. GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale), a well recognised and often used scoring system in such cases has some drawbacks. We compared FOUR score (Full Outline of Unresponsiveness) with GCS with an objective to test its validity as an alternative to assess the severity of traumatic brain injury. Methods: This was a descriptive study, conducted on 70 patients admitted to the neurosurgical ICU of a tertiary hospital of a Medical college in Karnataka, India. In these patients, FOUR score and GCS were assessed at the time of presentation and serially thereafter up to a week. The predictive value and the correlation between full outline of unresponsiveness score and Glasgow Coma Scale was studied. Results: Most of the patients presenting with traumatic brain injury were males (84%) and belonged to younger age group of 18 to 30 years (48.6%). A statistically significant correlation was found between Full outline of unresponsiveness score and Glasgow Coma Scale in estimating the severity of head injury. FOUR score also furnished better details about the neurological status of these patients. Conclusion: Full outline of unresponsiveness score can be used as an ideal replacement to GCS in evaluation of patients with traumatic head injury.