The “Revised Chinese Nanjing Scale for Consciousness Recovery and Multicenter Research: Expert Consensus,” authored under the leadership of Nanjing Zijin Hospital and in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of domestic experts, was published in the 12th issue of the Chinese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2025.

This consensus was developed under the auspices of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine’s 2024 Science and Technology Development Project (No. KFKT-2024-001). Led by Nanjing Zijin Hospital, it brought together expert teams in rehabilitation medicine, emergency medicine, neurology, critical care medicine, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and psychology from renowned university-affiliated hospitals and research institutions across China to revise the CNCRS published in 2023. Following detailed face-to-face discussions at an in-person meeting, a unified understanding was reached on the scale’s content and the multi-center study protocol, while areas of disagreement were identified. Subsequently, online Delphi surveys and other procedures were employed to finalize this consensus.

The consensus notes that the revised Chinese-Nanjing Coma Recovery Scale (CNCRS) comprises five subscales—visual, auditory, motor, feeding, and emotional responses—each rated on a 5-point scale (0–4), for a total score of 20. Its key innovation lies in its ability to dynamically quantify the entire continuum of consciousness in patients with brain injury, ranging from deep coma through the vegetative state and minimally conscious state to full recovery, and to map specific scores directly onto distinct diagnostic categories of consciousness, thereby addressing limitations of certain foreign scales in this regard.

The publication of this consensus marks a pivotal step forward for China in the field of consciousness‑disorder assessment, representing independent innovation and standardized research, and provides an important guiding framework for future clinical practice and scientific inquiry.