Abstract
Death by neurologic criteria, also called brain death, is a difficult concept for families and even some healthcare professionals to understand. Standards for determination of brain death specify an irreversible cause of coma, exclusion of confounding factors, brainstem areflexia, and apnea in response to hypercarbia. Ancillary tests can be helpful when confounding variables are present or the clinical exam cannot be satisfactorily completed. Declaration of brain death is typically completed by the attending physician, but neurocritical care APCs play an important role in identifying patients who may progress to brain death, supporting physiologic stability of the patient throughout the process, ordering or performing some of the tests required, and communicating with the patient’s family. Many patients who are declared brain dead are able to donate organs, and the APC is often involved in the management surrounding this process.
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Mahanes, D., Greer, D. (2018). Brain Death and Organ Donation. In: White, J., Sheth, K. (eds) Neurocritical Care for the Advanced Practice Clinician. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48669-7_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48669-7_18
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