The association of Glasgow Coma Scale score with characteristics of patients admitted to the intensive care unit

Abstract

We investigated the associations between Glasgow Coma Scale scores and individuals' characteristics in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit following an emergency surgery compared with other Intensive Care Unit patients. The study began in March 2020 and lasted for one year. It was conducted in the Department of Surgery at a teaching hospital affiliated with a Medical University. We analyzed data from a dataset including 2055 included patients with a mean (SD) age of 55.0 (15.6) years. Overall, 983 (47.8%) patients were women, and 623 (30.3%) underwent emergency surgery. The outcome variable was the Glasgow Coma Scale score and the predictors were a large number of patients' demographic, comorbidity, clinical, and laboratory features. The emergency surgery model showed a relatively accurate predictive ability [adjusted R2 = 75.1%, F (11, 486) = 136.0, p < 0.001] for estimating Glasgow Coma Scale scores. Respiratory rate, immunosuppressive state, having a nosocomial infection, the fraction of inspired oxygen, sex, age, blood sugar, and bilirubin concentration were statistically significant predictors of the Glasgow Coma Scale scores (all p < 0.05). The model for other patients was less accurate [adjusted R2 = 65.0%, F (7, 1136) = 300.1, p < 0.001], but significant for respiratory rate, fraction of inspired oxygen, sex, nosocomial infection, and serum creatinine (all p < 0.05). We concluded that Glasgow Coma Scale scores can be predicted using patients’ characteristics in individuals admitted to the Intensive Care Unit following emergency surgery. Multi-organ dysfunction in emergency situations leads to neurological impairment beyond brain physical trauma.