Irreversible Loss Of Brain Function Research Articles

Brain death diagnostics: use of ancillary tests

AbstractWith the determination of the definitive, irreversible loss of the overall function of the cerebrum, cerebellum and brain stem (irreversible loss of brain function, IHA, "brain death"), the death of the human being is determined from a scientific-medical point of view. The determination of IHA, with cardiovascular function being maintained by intensive care, requires special diagnostics ("brain death diagnostics"). This is carried out in the intensive care unit either to assess the medical prognosis, or as a prerequisite for post-mortem organ donation. In Germany, in accordance with the Transplantation Act, the procedural rules for determining IHA are laid down in corresponding guidelines of the German Medical Association (RL-BÄK), the 5th update of which has been in force since September 2022. Here, the indications, the requirements and the technical procedures of ancillary tests (electroencephalography, early auditory and somatosensory evoked potentials, Doppler and duplex sonography, computed tomography angiography, radionuclide perfusion scintigraphy, digital subtraction angiography) according to the German guidelines are outlined.

Brain Death Confirmation by 18F-FDG PET/CT: A Case Series.

Brain death is a state of irreversible loss of brain function in the cortex and brainstem. Diagnosis of brain death is established by clinical assessments of cranial nerves and apnea tests. Different conditions can mimic brain death. In addition, confirmatory tests may be falsely positive in some cases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the role of positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan with 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (18F-FDG-PET/CT) as an ancillary test in diagnosing brain death. We analyzed 6 potential brain death donors for the confirmatory diagnosis of brain death using FDG-PET/CT. All 6 donors were brain dead by clinical criteria. All patients had electroencephalogram and brain computed tomography. Other than FDG-PET/CT, transcranial Doppler was performed in 1 patient, with other patients having no confirmatory ancillary imaging tests. Patients had nothing by mouth for 6 hours before imaging. Patients were supine in a semi-dark, noiseless, and odorless room with closed eyes. After 60 minutes of uptake,the brain PET/CT scan was performed with sequential time-of-flight-PET/CT (Discovery 690 PET/CT with 64 slices, GE Healthcare). The PET scan consisted of LYSO (Lu1.8Y0.2 SiO5) crystals with dimensions of 4.2 × 6.3 × 25 mm3. Three-dimension images were with scan duration of 10 minutes. The PET scan confirmed brain death in 5 of the 6 cases. However, we ruled out brain death using PET/CT in a 3-year-old child, although all clinical tests confirmed brain death. A PET scan illustrates a hollow skull phenomenon suggestive of brain death. It can be a powerful diagnostic tool to assess brain death.

Prospective investigation of extracranial duplex sonography for the detection of cerebral circulatory arrest in patients with irreversible loss of brain function

Abroader distribution of bedside color-coded duplex sonography (CCD) for detection of cerebral circulatory arrest (CCA) would be important to improve its use in the diagnosis of irreversible loss of brain function (ILBF-Dx). Is extracranial compared to the commonly applied transcranial CCD of the brain-supplying vessels (ECCD vs. TCCD) equivalent for the detection of CCA in ILBF-Dx regarding specificity and sensitivity? Study period January 2019-June 2022, screening of 136 and inclusion of 114patients with severe brain lesions > 24 h after onset of fixed and dilated pupils, apnea and completed ILBF-Dx. Exclusion of patients without brainstem areflexia and guideline-conform applicability of CCD. Complementary ECCD (and TCCD, if other method used for irreversibility detection). Detection of ILBF (ILBF+) in 86.8% (99/114), no ILBF (ILBF-) in 13.2% (15/114). ECCD was fully feasible in all patients; findings matching CCA were found in 94/99 ILBF+ cases (ECCD+) and not in 5patients (ECCD-). All 15patients with ILBF- showed ECCD- findings. Thus, the specificity of ECCD was 1.0, and the sensitivity was 0.949. TCCD showed CCA in 56patients (TCCD+), and ECCD+ was also found in all of them. An inconclusive result of TCCD in ILBF+ was found in 38cases, with parallel ECCD+ in all of these patients. In 20cases, TCCD did not show CCA (TCCD-), these also showed ECCD-. Of these patients 15 were ILBF- and 5 were ILBF+. TCCD was not completely feasible or inconclusive in one third of the cases, whereas ECCD was always feasible. ECCD showed high validity with respect to the detection of CCA. Therefore, the possibility of using ECCD alone to detect CCA in ILBF-Dx should be discussed.

Diagnosis of brain death in Germany-Implementation of the guidelines of the German Medical Association

The 4th update of the guidelines of the German Medical Association on the diagnosis of irreversible loss of brain function (brain death, BD) has introduced important new regulations regarding the required qualification of the examiners, approved procedures for ancillary testing, and aclarification regarding the sequencing of diagnostic steps. Investigation of the implementation and practical effects on the diagnosis of brain death. Descriptive evaluation of the routine documentation of the German Organ Procurement Organization, comparing the periods July 2011-June 2015 (3rd update) and July 2015-June 2019 (4th update). Patient numbers decreased from 6100 to 5403. The largest decrease affected hospitals without neurosurgery. Children were not affected. With the 4th update, clinical diagnostics were increasingly performed during on-call hours by external neurologists. Of the patients 83.8% now received ancillary tests compared to 80.1% previously. Computed tomography angiography (CTA), first introduced in the 4th update, was applied in 23.2% and established complete loss of cerebral circulation in 89.4%. The time between first documentation of the clinical signs of BD and certification of BD increased from 7.0 ± 12.7 h to 8.2 ± 14.2 h. The diagnosis was slightly less frequent with 95.3% compared to 96.6%. The updated standards were implemented in accordance with the guidelines. The demand for external consulting neurologists and neurosurgeons as well as the time required for BD assessment have increased. Negative effects on pediatric BD diagnostics were not apparent. CTA is widely and successfully used in adults as anew ancillary diagnostic procedure.

Brain Death and Its Effect on Organ Donation: A 10-Year Analysis

Objective :Brain death can be defined as the irreversible loss of brain functions. It is evident that a delay occurred in the diagnosis of brain death will result in the loss of many cadaveric organs and thus, the number of patients waiting for organ transplantation will increase. Despite there being many studies in the literature about the diagnosis and difficulties of brain death, family interviews, and organ donation, the studies regarding the effects of the regulation change in Turkey on organ donation are limited. The present study includes 10-year retrospective data and it has been conducted to offer an insight to the scientists about the diagnosis of brain death and organ donation.
 Method: The study was conducted by using data obtained from the examination of the retrospective files of patients diagnosed with brain death between 2011 and 2021 at Pamukkale University, Faculty of Medicine after obtaining the approval of the ethics committee.
 Results: After the study was initiated, the files of 71 patients diagnosed with brain death between 2011 and 2021, were accessed. Due to the missing information in the files of 4 patients, these patients were excluded from the study. Of 67 patients with registered brain death, 36 were male (53.7%) and 31 were female (46.2%). The age average was 49.07. When the treatment units of these patients were evaluated, 50 patients (74.6%) diagnosed with brain death were treated at the neurosurgery intensive care unit, 7 (10.4%) at the neurology intensive care unit, 6 (9%) at the anesthesia intensive care unit, and 4 (6%) at the cardiovascular surgery intensive care unit.
 Conclusions:The study concluded that the importance of the diagnosis duration of brain death and the number of specialists who diagnosed brain death in the previous years may have affected this process. It is clear that the formal process, which changed after 2014, showed an acceleration in diagnosis. The importance of the interviews with family members besides the brain death diagnosis has emerged as a result of the study

Organspende nach irreversiblem Hirnfunktionsausfall

The prerequisites for post-mortem organ donation in Germany include the determination of irreversible loss of brain function, consent to organ donation, and the exclusion of medical contraindications. In addition, mainly because of the shortage of donor organs in Germany and the sometimes controversial social and media discussions on the topic of organ donation, all physicians involved in the donation process must be familiar with the relevant laws, guidelines, and procedural instructions. This applies especially to those who are to carry out the verification of irreversible brain death. Only then, can they act safely in this challenging situation and serve as competent consultants for all involved.

Exclusive color-coded duplex sonography of extracranial vessels reliably confirms brain death: A prospective study.

BackgroundTranscranial color-coded duplex sonography (TCCD) can be used as an ancillary test for determining irreversible loss of brain function (ILBF) when demonstration of cerebral circulatory arrest (CCA) is required. However, visualization of the intracranial vessels by TCCD is often difficult, or even impossible, in this patient cohort due to elevated intracranial pressure, an insufficient transtemporal bone window, or warped anatomical conditions. Since extracranial color-coded duplex sonography (ECCD) can be performed without restriction in the aforementioned situations, we investigated the feasibility of omitting TCCD altogether, such that the ILBF examination would be simplified, without compromising on its reliability.MethodsA total of 122 patients were prospectively examined by two experienced neurointensivists for the presence of ILBF from 01/2019-12/2021. Inclusion criteria were (i) the presence of a severe cerebral lesion on cranial CT or MRI, and (ii) brainstem areflexia. Upon standardized clinical examination, 9 patients were excluded due to incomplete brainstem areflexia, and a further 22 due to the presence of factors with a potentially confounding influence on apnea testing, EEG or sonography. A total of 91 patients were enrolled and underwent needle-EEG recording for >30 min (= gold standard), as well as ECCD and TCCD. The sonographer was blinded to the EEG result.ResultsAll patients whose ECCD result was consistent with ILBF had this diagnosis confirmed by EEG (n = 77; specificity: 1). Both ECCD and EEG were not consistent with ILBF in a further 12 patients. In the remaining two patients, ECCD detected reperfusion due to long-lasting cerebral hypoxia; however, ILBF was ultimately confirmed by EEG (sensitivity: 0.975). This yielded a positive predictive value (PPV) of one and a negative predictive value of 0.857 for the validity of ECCD in ILBF confirmation. TCCD was not possible/inconclusive in 31 patients (34%).ConclusionsThe use of ECCD for the confirmation of ILBF is associated with high levels of specificity and a high positive predictive value when compared to needle-electrode EEG. This makes ECCD a potential alternative to the ancillary tests currently used in this setting, but confirmation in a multi-center trial is warranted.Trial registrationhttps://www.drks.de, DRKS00017803.

An Automated Electronic Screening Tool (DETECT) for the Detection of Potentially Irreversible Loss of Brain Function.

A major reason for the low number of organ donors in Germany is a deficit in the recognition of patients who may have impending irreversible loss of brain function (ILBF) in hospitals capable of organ retrieval. We used anonymized data from the German Organ Procurement Organization (Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation, DSO) to compare two 12-month periods (a reference period and an evaluation period) before and after the implementation of an electronic screening tool (DETECT) at the University Hospital Dresden (UKD) with four other university hospitals without tool implementation (comparative cohort). DETECT is intended to aid in the recognition of potentially impending ILBF. The study endpoints encompassed patients with potentially unrecognized ILBF, patients with recognized ILBF, organ donations performed, and reports to the DSO. Changes in absolute risk were compared with Breslow-Day tests. 309 patients who died with primary or secondary brain lesions were identified in the UKD in the reference and evaluation periods (164 and 145 patients, respectively), and 1060 (529, 531) in the comparative cohort. In the UKD, the number of unrecognized cases of possibly impending ILBF was 14/164 (8.54%) in the reference period and 1/145 (0.69%) in the evaluation period, yielding an absolute reduction of 7.85% (95% confidence interval [--3.36; --12.33]); by contrast, in the comparative cohort, there was a 0.55% absolute increase between the two periods ([--2.21; 3.30]; p = 0.002 for the comparison between the two cohorts). Only minor differences in absolute risk change were seen with regard to the probability of recognized ILBF (7.09% [0.29; 13.88] vs. 2.42% [1.18; 6.01]; p = 0.234), organ donation (4.70% [--0.89; 10.28] vs. 0.55% [--2.17; 3.26]; p = 0.214), or reporting to the DSO (4.17% [--1.77; 10.11] vs. 2.22% [--1.44; 5.89; p = 0.447); these changes may have arisen by chance. These findings suggest that the use of DETECT can help to reduce the deficit in the recognition of patients with impending or manifest ILBF.

Considerations for quality assurance of discussions with relatives in direct association with organ donation

Discussions with relatives are relevant and crucial aspects of the organ donation process and contribute to aconsolidated and sustainable decision by the families of the deceased. Despite the great importance of family care, there is no systematic analysis of the quality of this communication, in contrast to the diagnosis of irreversible loss of brain function, organ retrieval and organ transplantation. For this reason, organ donation experts were interviewed about recurring characteristics of communication with relatives of the deceased. The aim of this qualitative study was to define criteria for the assessment of the structure and quality of the communication process with relatives for internal quality management in Germany. Based on asystematic literature review and with the help of the 5‑stage S2PS2 (system for creating a questionnaire) procedure according to Kruse, interview guidelines were initially developed. As asecond step, in guideline-based interviews 10experienced organ donation experts were questioned about structural, procedural and ethical aspects of their discussions with relatives. Following the interviews, asoftware-based qualitative content analysis was carried out with acombined inductive-deductive category system. Finally, the first quality assurance measures for the interviews with relatives were developed in amultistep process, closely following the methodological principles V1.1 of the Institute for Quality Assurance and Transparency in Health Care (IQTIG). The individual research steps were accompanied by an expert group consisting of physicians, nurses, theologians and ethicists utilizing an anonymous Delphi procedure. In the qualitative content analysis, 5main categories with 30subcategories on quality relevant aspects could be identified (including, standardization and technique of conversation, interview framework and context factors, professional expertise of the interviewers, wishes of the organ donation experts). On this basis, 6criteria for the structural quality and 7criteria for the process quality of the discussions with relatives were formulated and summarized in arespective quality bundle. These criteria address, among other things, interprofessional communication, structured training concepts, regular further training of all team members, use of standardized communication and counselling strategies as well as documented preliminary meetings and debriefings, including supervising elements. They emphasize interdisciplinary professionalism and process management in aprotected environment as well as quality assured communication and documentation. Recommendations were made for expanding the existing documentation for the organ donation process and for documenting the preliminary meetings and debriefings. Recurring communication and process characteristics as well as requirements for the members of the treatment team who conduct the conversation can be identified for the interviews with relatives, which show potential for improvement to various degrees. This justifies the structured derivation of aquality bundle for the structural and process quality family care related to organ donation, which should enable alow-threshold entry into an institution internal systematic quality assessment of communication with relatives in Germany. Due to the different legal, medical and social specifics in an international context, the study results cannot be directly transferred to other countries.

The role of the the transplant coordinator

Alle Krankenhäuser, die nach dem Sozialgesetzbuch V als Entnahmekrankenhäuser definiert sind, sind verpflichtet, einen Transplantationsbeauftragten (TxB) zu stellen. Das Aufgabenfeld des TxB beinhaltet nicht nur die Spendererkennung, die Diagnose eines irreversiblen Hirnfunktionsausfalls sowie die Spenderevaluation und Organprotektion, sondern er begleitet den gesamten Organspendeprozess. Er verantwortet die Festlegung von innerklinischen Standards sowie die Organisation von Fort- und Weiterbildungen und ist Ansprechpartner rund um das Thema Organspende. Darüber hinaus fungiert er als Bindeglied zwischen der Koordinierungs- (Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation) und der Vermittlungsstelle (Eurotransplant). Seine Tätigkeit unterliegt dem Transplantationsgesetz und dessen Ausführungsgesetzen; er benötigt aber auch entsprechende Kenntnisse der verschiedenen Richtlinien zu Organspende bzw. -transplantation. Letztendlich ist der TxB auch für die Qualitätssicherung des Organspendeprozesses verantwortlich.

Irreversible loss of brain function : Requirements and Clinical diagnosis

Brain death (irreversible loss of brain function), according to German regulations, is investigated exclusively by qualified specialists in astrictly hierarchical three-step pattern and afour-eyes principle. In step1 all necessary prerequisites are to be checked and the pathophysiology of brain damage has to be classified. Step2 comprises the clinical investigation of reactivity to external stimuli and the upper, middle and lower brain stem reflexes including apnea testing. Step3 exclusively checks for irreversibility of this condition. The latter is achieved by appropriate technical investigations or by repeated clinical examinations within context-specified intervals (range 12-72 h). However, exclusion of contributing primarily infratentorial pathologies is necessary to avoid limitations of the clinical findings. In this paper, both the initiation of brain death diagnostics and the approved clinical tests regarding to their execution, their alternatives and limits are presented and special situations like conditions with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are also examined.

Cuba’s contribution in the diagnosis of brain death/death by neurologic criteria

I read with interest the paper by Lewis et al. to identify the countries in the Latin America/Caribbean Group of the United Nations (GRULAC) that have protocols for brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC). Curiously, the authors don’t mention Cuba, which has been one of the most active countries in the area, since the early ’90s. The first kidney transplant in Cuba was performed on 24 February 1970, using a cadaveric donor. In September 1992, the First Symposium on Brain Death was held in Havana, with the attendance of the main and world-known authors at that time, like Cristopher Pallis, Earl Walker, among others. These conferences uninterruptedly continued over the years, and the last Symposium was held in December 2018. In the First Symposium, the Cuban Commission for Death Determination presented for the first time the Guidelines for the Determination of BD/DNC in Cuba. Since that time, Machado proposed a concept of death, based on the basic pathophysiological mechanism of consciousness generation. This author also proposed as ancillary tests in BD/DNC diagnosis the use of a test battery composed of multimodality evoked potentials (MEP) and electroretinography (ERG). Later, a Cuban Law for the determination of death was issued. The Cuban Commission The Commission stated that there is only one kind of death, based on the irreversible loss of brain functions based on the whole brain criteria. Furthermore, the Cuban law did not even mention the term ‘transplants’. It is clear the human beings die regardless bodies would be useful or not for transplantation.

Death determination and donation after circulatory death: Can physicians reconcile cardiorespiratory death and irreversible loss of brain function?

Declaration of cardiorespiratory death, as defined by the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), requires irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory function. A physician’s ability to confidently declare death is paramount because death is both a biological and social construct, and can afford a dying patient the opportunity to be an organ donor via donation after circulatory death (DCD). Inconsistencies related to cardiorespiratory death and DCD include the specific language used in the UDDA, specifically the use of the word “irreversible”. Additionally, in DCD there is a large focus on the auto-resuscitative capacity of the heart, however recently some have argued that instead the focus should shift to the brain and a determination of how long it needs to be without circulation to cease functioning prior to declaring death. In this paper, I discuss inconsistencies with cardiorespiratory death as they pertain to organ donation and posit several possible solutions to mitigate these inconsistencies.

Defining Death: Lessons From the Case of Jahi McMath.

Death is defined biologically as the irreversible loss of the functioning of the organism as a whole, which typically occurs after the loss of cardiorespiratory function. In 1968, a Harvard committee proposed that death could also be defined neurologically as the irreversible loss of brain function. Brain death has been considered to be equivalent to cardiorespiratory arrest on the basis of the belief that the brain is required to maintain functioning of the organism as a whole and that without the brain, cardiorespiratory arrest and biological death are both rapid and certain. Over the past 20 years, however, this equivalence has been shown to be false on the basis of numerous cases of patients correctly diagnosed as brain-dead who nevertheless continued to survive for many years. The issue reached national attention with the case of Jahi McMath, a young woman diagnosed as brain-dead after a surgical accident, who survived for almost 5 years, mostly at home, supported with a ventilator and tube feedings. The fact that brain death is not biological death has many implications, notably including the concern that procurement of organs from brain-dead donors may not comply with the so-called dead donor rule, which requires that vital organs be procured from patients only after they are dead. In this article, I conclude with an analysis of options for moving forward and among them advocate for reframing brain death as a "social construct," with implicit societal acceptance that patients diagnosed as brain-dead may be treated legally and ethically the same as if they were biologically dead.

Brain Death Induction in Mice Using Intra-Arterial Blood Pressure Monitoring and Ventilation via Tracheostomy.

While both living donation and donation after circulatory death provide alternative opportunities for organ transplantation, donation after donor brain death (BD) still represents the major source for solid transplants. Unfortunately, the irreversible loss of brain function is known to induce multiple pathophysiological changes, including hemodynamic as well as hormonal modifications, finally leading to a systemic inflammatory response. Models that allow a systematic investigation of these effects in vivo are scarce. We present a murine model of BD induction, which could aid investigations into the devastating effects of BD on allograft quality. After implementing intra-arterial blood pressure measurement via the common carotid artery and reliable ventilation via a tracheostomy, BD is induced by steadily increasing intracranial pressure using a balloon catheter. Four hours after BD induction, organs may be harvested for analysis or for further transplantation procedures. Our strategy enables the comprehensive analysis of donor BD in a murine model, therefore allowing an in-depth understanding of BD-related effects in solid organ transplantation and potentially paving the way to optimized organ preconditioning.

THE SOUL: WHY MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS AND ISLAMIC SCHOLARS DO NOT ACCEPT BRAIN DEATH CONCEPT

The concept of brain death refers to the irreversible loss of brain function which includes the brain stem. The diagnosis of brain death is a controversial issue among Muslim scholars and medical experts because it involves the pronouncement of death of a patient whose heart is still beating with the assistance of a ventilator (breathing apparatus). Many countries recognise brain death as true death. However, there are religious scholars and medical experts who disagree with the concept of brain death because they believe that the soul still exists in one’s body although the brain has been diagnosed as dead. From their point of view, the heartbeat shows that the soul is still present in the body. From the perspective of Islam, a person is considered dead when there is separation between the soul and body. This paper will discuss the arguments pertaining to the soul which have been used in rejecting the concept and diagnosis of brain death.

Blocking Complement Factor B Activation Reduces Renal Injury and Inflammation in a Rat Brain Death Model.

Introduction: The majority of kidneys used for transplantation are retrieved from brain-dead organ donors. In brain death, the irreversible loss of brain functions results in hemodynamic instability, hormonal changes and immunological activation. Recently, brain death has been shown to cause activation of the complement system, which is adversely associated with renal allograft outcome in recipients. Modulation of the complement system in the brain-dead donor might be a promising strategy to improve organ quality before transplantation. This study investigated the effect of an inhibitory antibody against complement factor B on brain death-induced renal inflammation and injury.Method: Brain death was induced in male Fischer rats by inflating a balloon catheter in the epidural space. Anti-factor B (anti-FB) or saline was administered intravenously 20 min before the induction of brain death (n = 8/group). Sham-operated rats served as controls (n = 4). After 4 h of brain death, renal function, renal injury, and inflammation were assessed.Results: Pretreatment with anti-FB resulted in significantly less systemic and local complement activation than in saline-treated rats after brain death. Moreover, anti-FB treatment preserved renal function, reflected by significantly reduced serum creatinine levels compared to saline-treated rats after 4 h of brain death. Furthermore, anti-FB significantly attenuated histological injury, as seen by reduced tubular injury scores, lower renal gene expression levels (>75%) and renal deposition of kidney injury marker-1. In addition, anti-FB treatment significantly prevented renal macrophage influx and reduced systemic IL-6 levels compared to saline-treated rats after brain death. Lastly, renal gene expression of IL-6, MCP-1, and VCAM-1 were significantly reduced in rats treated with anti-FB.Conclusion: This study shows that donor pretreatment with anti-FB preserved renal function, reduced renal damage and inflammation prior to transplantation. Therefore, inhibition of factor B in organ donors might be a promising strategy to reduce brain death-induced renal injury and inflammation.

Is Irreversible Loss of Brain Function a Reliable Sign of Death?

Is Irreversible Loss of Brain Function a Reliable Sign of Death?

Diagnosis of brain death in Brazil.

Brain death, defined as the complete and irreversible loss of brain functions, has a history that is linked to the emergence of intensive care units and the advancement of artificial ventilatory support. In Brazil, by federal law, the criteria for the diagnosis of brain death have been defined by the Federal Council of Medicine since 1997 and apply to the entire Brazilian territory. Resolution 2,173/2017 of the Federal Council of Medicine updated the criteria for diagnosing brain death. These changes include the following: the requirement for the patient to meet specific physiological prerequisites and for the physician to provide optimized care to the patient before starting the procedures for diagnosing brain death and to perform complementary tests, as well as the need for specific training for physicians who make this diagnosis. Other changes include the reduction of the time interval between the two clinical examinations, the possibility of continuing procedures in the presence of unilateral ear or eye injury, the performance of a single apnea test and the creation of a statement of brain death determination that includes the recording of all procedures in a single document. This document, despite the controversy surrounding it, increases the safety necessary when establishing a diagnosis of such importance and has positive implications that extend beyond the patient and the physician to reach the entire health system.

The Relevance of Irreversible Loss of Brain Function as a Reliable Sign of Death

There is an ongoing need for clear explanation of the diagnostic entity called "irreversible loss of brain function" (ILBF), as the absolute reliability of this diagnosis and its significance continue to be widely misunderstood. The determination of death as an objective medical-scientific matter is often not clearly distinguished from various other aspects of death, such as its metaphysical and cultural aspects and the ways in which the living deal with the dead. This review is based on articles retrieved by a selective literature search in the PubMed database and on guidelines and standardized diagnostic protocols from Germany and abroad. ILBF can be caused by brain ischemia or anoxia or by any other type of brain disease or injury leading to an elevation of the intracranial pressure above the blood pressure and thereby to an arrest of the cerebral circulation. All situations in which brain function is merely reduced but not abolished, or only temporarily but not permanently abolished, can be clearly differentiated from ILBF through the use of standard diagnostic procedures as recommended in the relevant guidelines. Biological features that are common to all human beings underlie the medical criteria for the determination of death. The most important elements of the determination of death are irreversibility of the loss of brain function, loss of integration of bodily functions into a single living being, and loss of ability for any self-reflection or any independent interaction with the environment. ILBF is a reliable sign that a human being is dead. There has never been even one known case of incorrect determination of ILBF after proper application of the standardized diagnostic procedures that are set down in the guideline according to §16 of the German Transplantation Law.