BRAIN DEATH

Many of us may not know about the brain death. It is a medical term used to indicate the e irreversible end of all brain activity (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. Brain death, either of the whole brain or the brain stem, is used as a legal indicator of death in many jurisdictions. Brain death may result in legal death, but still with the heart beating, and with mechanical ventilation all other vital organs may be kept completely alive and functional providing optimal opportunities for organ transplantation Brain death from primary neurologic disease usually is caused by severe head injury or aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. In medical and surgical intensive care units, however, hypoxic-ischemic brain insults and fulminant hepatic failure may result in irreversible loss of brain function. In large referral hospitals, neurologists make the diagnosis of brain death 25 to 30 times a year.