Question

If your trauma patient had an initial GCS score of 13, and now has a score of 10, what does this infer?

1) The patient is still stable.
2) The patient is deteriorating.
3) Someone miscalculated the first GCS score as the maximum score one can receive is 10.
4) The patient is improving.

Answer 1

A trauma patient whose GCS score decreased from 13 to 10 is deteriorating, indicating a worsening neurological condition that requires immediate medical attention.

Step-by-step explanation:

If a trauma patient had an initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 13 and now has a score of 10, this infers that the patient is deteriorating. The GCS is a neurological scale that aims to give a reliable, objective way of recording the state of a person's consciousness for initial as well as subsequent assessment. A GCS score ranges from 3 to 15, with higher scores indicating better neurological function and lower scores indicating decreased levels of consciousness. A decreasing score suggests that the patient's neurological status is worsening, which can be due to various factors such as swelling, bleeding in or around the brain, or other traumatic injuries. Immediate medical attention is required to evaluate the cause of the decline and to provide appropriate treatment.