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Emergency Medicine & First Aid vocabulary · Emergency Assessment (ABC)

Responsive

Meaning in emergency medicine & first aid, with examples

/rɪˈspɑːnsɪv/adjectiveCore term

In emergency medicine & first aid, responsive means: Reacting when someone speaks to or touches you, for example by opening your eyes, moving or answering; the opposite is unresponsive.

In Turkish: yanıt veren, tepki veren, uyaranlara yanıtlı

How it is used

One of the first checks in any assessment: is the person responsive or unresponsive? Rescuers say 'responsive to voice' or 'responsive to pain', which links to the AVPU scale. In reports, 'unresponsive' is more common and more precise than 'unconscious'.

Example sentences

  1. The caller said the woman was unresponsive and not breathing normally.

  2. She's responsive to voice but very drowsy.

Common collocations

  • unresponsive patient
  • responsive to voice
  • responsive to pain
  • become unresponsive
  • unconsciousNot awake and not aware of what is happening, so that the person cannot respond normally to voices or touch.
  • AVPUA quick scale for level of consciousness: the patient is Alert, responds to Voice, responds to Pain, or is Unresponsive.
  • GCSShort for Glasgow Coma Scale: a score from 3 to 15 for level of consciousness, based on how a patient opens their eyes, speaks and moves.
  • primary surveyA fast, structured first check of a patient, usually in the ABCDE order, to find and deal with life-threatening problems.

More terms: Emergency Assessment (ABC)

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.