Synonyms
Death
Definition
Brain death is the irreversible loss of all brain function. Including the lack of capacity for consciousness and respirations (Presidents Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine 1981). Brain death is equivalent to traditional circulatory death, which is defined by cessation of tissue perfusion and the absence of pulses. However, with brain death the heart will continue to beat and spinal cord reflexes may persist for a short time (Canadian Neurocritical Care Group 1999).
Current Knowledge
History of the Definition of Brain Death
In 1959, Mollaret and Goulon first introduced the term coma dépassé (beyond coma) to describe irreversible brain damage (Mollaret and Goulon 1959). The modern scientific concept of brain death is largely based on this original description of 23 comatose patients who exhibited loss of brainstem reflexes, respirations, and flat electroencephalograms (EEG). Several years later, the Harvard ad hoc committee formalized the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School. (1968). A definition of irreversible coma. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard medical school to examine the definition of brain death. Journal of the American Medical Association, 205, 337–340.
Canadian Neurocritical Care Group. (1999). Guidelines for the diagnosis of death. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 26, 64–66.
Mollaret, P., & Goulon, M. (1959). Le coma dépassé. Revue Neurologique, 101, 3–15.
President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine. (1981). Guidelines for the determination of death. Journal of the American Medical Association, 246, 2184–2186.
Wijdicks, E. F. (2000). Brain death. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Wijdicks, E. F. (2001). The diagnosis of brain death. New England Journal of Medicine, 344, 1215–1221.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Powell, T.L. (2018). Brain Death. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_300
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_300
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57110-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences