17^th Annual Brain Death Congress

Brain Death Diagnosis

The process of brain death determination and certification includes identification of physical examination findings which give a clear etiology of brain dysfunction. The diagnosis of brain death is clinically determined primarily. If the full clinical examinations including brain stem reflexes and apnea test are conclusively performed, then no other confirmatory tests are required. In some cases like cervical injuries or cardiovascular instability may cause misinterpretation of clinical tests’ result. In such case, a confirmatory test is necessary to verify the brain death properly. These confirmatory tests include angiography, cerebral arteriography, electroencephalography, nuclear brain scanning, transcranial Doppler ultrasonography etc. All the determination process should be done by at least two specialist physicians separately and all phases of determination should be recorded. Finally certification process should be done after completion of maintaining all records.