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 deat ...
l
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 ...
in
children.
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, Li ...
, 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