AVPU and GCS

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AVPU
  • Alert
  • Verbal
  • Pain
  • Unconcious
Glasgow coma score


Eye
4 – spontaneous eye opening
3 – opens to verbal command
2 – opens to pain
1 – no eye opening
Verbal
5 – obeys commands
4- confused speech
3 – inappropriate words
2 – Incomprehensible sounds
1 – no response
Motor
6 – Obeys commands
5 – localizes to pain
4 – flexion or withdrawal to pain
3 – abnormal flexion
2 – extension
1 – no response



To create a painful stimulus, use a trapezius squeeze, earlobe pinch, suproorbital pressure or sternal rub, with a sternal rub it may be difficult to tell localising to pain from flexing to pain. 
Unconsciousness usually correlates to a  GCS under 8 with no eye response .

http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/glasgow-coma-scale-gcs
Wyatt JP, Illingworth RN, Graham CA, Clancy MJ, Robertson CE, Oxford Handbook of Emergency Medicine, 3rd Ed, oxford, oxford university press, 2006. 

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