Comparing prognostic value of the pediatric glasgow coma scale and the glasgow coma scale - pupils score in pediatric traumatic brain ınjury.

Abstract

The Glasgow Coma Scale has been a standard tool for assessing consciousness in trauma patients for five decades, but its utility is limited by the omission of brainstem reflexes such as pupillary response.This study aimed to compare the prognostic accuracy of the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale (pGCS) and the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale - Pupils Score (pGCS-P) in predicting mortality and functional outcomes among pediatric patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This single-center observational cohort study was conducted from May 2022 to May 2023 at Bursa Training and Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, Turkey. Pediatric patients (age <18 years) presenting with TBI were evaluated for level of consciousness and pupillary responses on admission. Both the pGCS and pGCS-P scores were calculated for each patient. For patients with anisocoria but preserved light reflexes in both pupils, scoring adjustments were made. Of the 134 patients studied, 59.7% were male, and the mean (SD) age was 6.3 (5.4) years. In-hospital mortality was 12.7%, and 5.1% had unfavorable functional outcomes (UFOs) at discharge. Both the pGCS-P and pGCS demonstrated excellent ability to predict mortality (AUC, 0.97, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99 and 0.97, 95% CI: 0.94-0.96, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in prognostic performance between the two scores using either binomial (p = .165) or nonparametric (p = .445) analyses (p >.05). In pediatric patients with TBI, the prognostic accuracy of the pGCS with pupil response (pGCS-P) was comparable to that of the pGCS alone for predicting mortality and UFOs. Incorporation of the pupil score did not significantly improve prognostic discrimination in this cohort.