Simplified Evaluation of CONsciousness Disorders (SECONDs)

(Sanz et al., 2021)

Instructional Manual

Assessment Form

An assessment tool that is based on the CRS-R to assess consciousness in patients with DoC. Tool composed of 8 items to assess:

  1. Observation

  2. Command following

  3. Communication (intentional or functional – conditional item)

  4. Visual pursuit

  5. Visual fixation

  6. Localization to pain (conditional item)

  7. Oriented behaviors

  8. Arousal

Scoring

  • Score is related to level of consciousness ranging from EMCS (8), MCS+ (6-7), MCS- (2-5), UWS (1), to coma (0).

*Assessment is currently in the process of being validated for the acute hospital setting (stay tuned!)

References

Sanz, L. R. D., Aubinet, C., Cassol, H., Bodart, O., Wannez, S., Bonin, E. A. C., Barra, A., Lejeune, N., Martial, C., Chatelle, C., Ledoux, D., Laureys, S., Thibaut, A., & Gosseries, O. (2021). SECONDs administration guidelines: A fast tool to assess consciousness in brain-injured patients. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 168, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3791/61968