The Blantyre coma scale is a modification of the Pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale, designed to assess

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

children A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

. It was designed by Terrie Taylor and Malcolm Molyneux in 1987, and named for the

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

an city of

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

, site of the Blantyre Malaria Project.Taylor, T. (2009) Caring for children with cerebral malaria: insights gleaned from 20 years on a research ward in Malawi. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 103 (Suppl 1): S6-S10 DoI: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2008.10.049

Using the scale

The score assigned by the Blantyre coma scale is a number from 0 to 5. The score is determined by adding the results from three groups: Motor response, verbal response, and eye movement. The minimum score is 0 which indicates poor results while the maximum is 5 indicating good results. All scores under 5 are considered abnormal.

Eye movement

* 1 – Watches or follows * 0 – Fails to watch or follow

Best motor response

* 2 – Localizes painful stimulus (patient's ability to remove stimuli) * 1 – Withdraws limb from painful stimulus * 0 – No response or inappropriate response

Best verbal response

* 2 – Cries appropriately with pain, or, if verbal, speaks * 1 – Moan or abnormal cry with pain * 0 – No vocal response to pain

References

External links

Article on Dr Taylor and the Blantyre Malaria Project
Medical scales Malaria Coma Medical assessment and evaluation instruments {{med-diagnostic-stub