Aim of the study: The current study investigated the Glasgow-Coma-Scale (GCS) and the Innsbruck-Coma-Scale (ICS) for accuracy and reliability of prehospital prediction of non-survival.
Methods: 254 patients were scored immediately after trauma.
Results: Both scales equally predicted non-survival with low scores (p < 0.001). The ICS was slightly better in overall prediction of patient outcome (ICS: 84.98%; GCS: 82.68%), but more importantly, statistical analysis (logistic regression model) showed a greater distance between the median scores of survivors and non-survivors, when scored with the ICS (survival: 12; non-survival: 3) than when scored with the GCS (survival: 7; non-survival: 4).
Conclusion: The results of the present study not only suggest that it is possible to predict mortality prior to therapy for any individual GCS and ICS coma score, but also indicated the ICS to be safer to use than the GCS because of the greater distance of the median scores for survivors and non survivors.