How is Traumatic Brain Injury Classified?
The Glasgow Coma Scale
The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a tool used to classify brain injuries. The Glasgow Coma Scale recognizes three levels of severity for traumatic brain injury: mild, moderate and severe.
When classifying the severity of a brain injury, medical professionals will look at a person’s eye responses, verbal responses, and motor responses. The lowest score on the GCS is a three, meaning that a person does not open their eyes, makes no sounds, and makes no movements. A person who scores a three on the GCS is in a deep coma. The highest possible score is a 15, which means that a person is functioning normally.
Mild traumatic brain injury results from blunt trauma or acceleration or deceleration forces with one or more of the following conditions during a surveillance period:
- Transient confusion, disorientation or impaired consciousness
- Dysfunction of memory (amnesia) around the time of the injury
- Seizures
- In children and infants: irritability, lethargy or vomiting following injury
- In older children and adults: headache, dizziness, irritability, fatigue and poor concentration
- Loss of consciousness lasting 30 minutes or less
Concussion: a trauma-induced alteration in mental status that may or may not involve loss of consciousness.
- American Academy of Neurology, Quality Standards Subcommittee, Practice Parameter
Moderate and severe brain injuries may include the following symptoms soon after the incident resulting in injury:
- Loss of consciousness lasting longer than 30 minutes
- Posttraumatic amnesia lasting longer than 24 hours
- Penetrating craniocerebral injury
These standard classifications are helpful, yet not always accurate enough to diagnose traumatic brain injury because of their limited sensitivity.
Other Tests for TBI classification
Medical professionals are working to create more accurate means of TBI testing, but the work can be a struggle. Some other methods of classifying TBI include:
- Rancho Los Amigos
- Galveston Orientation and Amnesia Test
- Ommaya-Gennarelli Classification
For more information about TBI and accurate assessment, we invite you to speak with John Tiwald and Scott Borg. We are happy to help you better understand the different aspects of TBI and provide legal counsel. For the most accurate diagnosis of a traumatic brain injury following an accident, please consult your doctor.
