Introduction to the Coma/Near Coma Scale

The Coma/Near Coma (CNC) scale was developed to measure small clinical changes in patients with severe brain injuries who function at very low levels characteristic of near-vegetative and vegetative states. The CNC was designed to provide reliable, valid, easy, and quick assessment of progress or lack of progress in low-level brain injured patients. The CNC essentially expands the levels of the Disability Rating Scale (DRS) that incorporate the vegetative and extreme vegetative categories. The CNC has five levels, based on 11 items, that can be scored to indicate severity of sensory, perceptual, and primitive response deficits.

Information regarding the CNC was contributed by Santa Clara Valley Medical Center by Maurice Rappaport, MD, PhD. For more information please contact Tamara Bushnik, PhD, at for more information.

If you find the information in the COMBI useful, please mention it when citing sources of information. The information on the Coma/Near Coma Scale may be cited as:

Rappaport, M. (2000). The Coma/Near Coma Scale. The Center for Outcome Measurement in Brain Injury. http://www.tbims.org/combi/cnc ( accessed ).