Cerebral Death-The History of the Syndrome and Its Identification

Excerpt

The development of effective, easily manageable mechanical respirators and of means of maintaining circulation began a little more than 15 years ago, and the emergency resuscitation (reanimation) teams now so common in hospitals are barely 10 years old. These advances have generated a syndrome in which, despite maintenance of respiration and circulation, the brain apparently ceases to function: the patient remains in deep coma, body temperature may drop, and the heart stops finally in several days or, less commonly, weeks. Autopsy of such patients who have had relatively long periods on the respirator shows that the original brain lesion will