Abstract

Aim: To identify the incidence of intracranial pathology in a population of patients with trauma with an on-scene Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) of 13 or 14, and the proportion that required prehospital intubation and ventilation.

Method: A retrospective review of a prehospital trauma database was carried out over a 12-month period, and 81 patients were reviewed. All had a traumatic mechanism of injury and had an on-scene GCS of 13 or 14 recorded by a prehospital doctor. 43 patients required prehospital rapid-sequence intubation. Overall, 31.5% of patients with a GCS of 13 or 14 had an abnormal computed tomography scan of the head and 20.5% had an intracranial haemorrhage.

Results: For this group of patients with trauma with a drop of only one or two points on the GCS, the incidence of intracranial pathology was almost one in three and that of intracranial haemorrhage was one in five.