Neurology Assessment

Neurological evaluation using the NIHSS (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale), with headache, seizure, motor, sensory, and cognitive assessment.

Scoring

Instrument: NIHSS. Range 0–42.

• 0 — no stroke symptoms.
• 1–4 — minor.
• 5–15 — moderate.
• 16–20 — moderate to severe.
• 21–42 — severe.

What it covers

Demographics; chief complaint; NIHSS assessment; headache assessment; seizure history; motor and sensory exam; cognitive assessment; current medications; diagnostic results; and functional/social status.

Relationship to stroke-assessment

This assessment uses the same NIHSS instrument as Stroke Assessment but frames it within a broader general neurological evaluation (headache, seizure, and cognitive screening included); Stroke Assessment is scoped specifically to acute stroke presentation with symptom-onset timing as a first-class field. Use Stroke Assessment specifically when timing-critical acute stroke workflow matters.

Common pitfalls

• Using NIHSS outside an acute stroke context without noting that — the scale was validated and is most meaningful for acute stroke severity; applying it to a non-acute general neurological complaint needs that context made explicit.
• Treating headache and seizure sections as routine boilerplate — either can be the actual presenting problem driving the whole assessment; they deserve full workup, not a quick checkbox pass because the NIHSS looks normal.
• Missing symptom-onset timing — for any presentation with acute neurological deficit, onset timing is critical for treatment decisions (e.g. thrombolysis windows) — see Stroke Assessment, where this is explicitly first-class.

Learn more

• FormExamples: neurology-assessment for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.
• Stroke Assessment for the acute-stroke-specific counterpart.