The message of the Glasgow Coma Scale: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and systematic review of clinical practice guidelines spanning the past 50 years

BACKGROUND Despite the ubiquitous use and profound impact of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), no study to date has quantitatively assessed its impact on scientific literature and clinical practice. Therefore, we comprehensively analyze scientific publications and clinical practice guidelines employing the GCS to gauge its clinical and academic impact, identify research hotspots, and inform future research. METHODS A cross-sectional bibliometric analysis was performed on Scopus to obtain relevant publications incorporating the GCS from 1974 to 2022. In addition, a systematic review of existing clinical practice guidelines in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Trip Database was performed. Validated bibliometric parameters including article title, journal, publication year, authors, citation count, country, institution, keywords, impact factor, and references were assessed. When evaluating clinical practice guidelines, the sponsoring organization, country of origin, specialty, and publication year were assessed. RESULTS A total of 37,633 articles originating from 3,924 different scientific journals spanning 1974 to 2022 were included in the final analysis. The compound annual growth rate was 16.7%. Of 104 countries, the United States had the highest total number of publications (n=8,517). World Neurosurgery was the scientific periodical with the highest number of publications (n=798). The top trending author-supplied keyword was “traumatic brain injury” (n=3,408). The 97 included clinical practice guidelines most commonly employed the GCS in the fields of internal medicine (n=22, 23%), critical care (n=21, 22%), and neurotrauma (n=19, 20%). CONCLUSION At the turn of the 50th anniversary of the GCS, we provided an objective description of the “path to success” of the GCS both in terms of its scientific and clinical impact. These results hold not only a historical but also a didactic value. Our analysis of some of the factors that led the GCS to become such a widespread and highly influential score may assist future researchers in their development of future outcome measures and clinical scores, especially as they become increasingly relevant in an evidence-based, data-driven age.