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Brain Death Evaluation and Determination

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Surgical Critical Care Therapy

Abstract

Brain death is a critical concept for surgical intensivists to be aware of, and the diagnosis of brain death has been controversial over time. This chapter outlines the basic diagnosis of brain death as described by the American Academy of Neurology guidelines. This includes the cardinal findings of brain death, as well as confirmatory tests that can be used as ancillary evidence of brain death. It also covers pitfalls in diagnosis and strategies for these clinical scenarios. Finally, this chapter delineates the appropriate documentation for brain death.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Anupamaa Seshadri

  2. Division of Trauma, Burn, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency General Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Ali Salim

Authors
  1. Anupamaa Seshadri
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  2. Ali Salim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ali Salim .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brigham and Womens’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Ali Salim

  2. Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

    Carlos Brown

  3. Division of Trauma Surgery, Rm C5L100, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Kenji Inaba

  4. Trauma and Emergency Surgery Service, Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, Portland, Oregon, USA

    Matthew J. Martin

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Seshadri, A., Salim, A. (2018). Brain Death Evaluation and Determination. In: Salim, A., Brown, C., Inaba, K., Martin, M. (eds) Surgical Critical Care Therapy . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71712-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71712-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71711-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71712-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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