Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Determination

Abstract

Purpose of review: This article describes the prerequisites for brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC), clinical evaluation for BD/DNC (including apnea testing), use of ancillary testing, and challenges associated with BD/DNC determination in adult and pediatric patients.

Recent findings: Although death determination should be consistent among physicians and across hospitals, states, and countries to ensure that someone who is declared dead in one place would not be considered alive elsewhere, variability exists in the prerequisites, clinical evaluation, apnea testing, and use of ancillary testing to evaluate for BD/DNC. Confusion also exists about performance of an evaluation for BD/DNC in challenging clinical scenarios, such as for a patient who is on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or a patient who was treated with therapeutic hypothermia. This prompted the creation of the World Brain Death Project, which published an international consensus statement on BD/DNC that has been endorsed by five world federations and 27 medical societies from across the globe.

Summary: The World Brain Death Project consensus statement is intended to provide guidance for professional societies and countries to revise or develop their own protocols on BD/DNC, taking into consideration local laws, culture, and resource availability; however, it does not replace local medical standards. To that end, pending publication of an updated guideline on determination of BD/DNC across the lifespan, the currently accepted medical standards for BD/DNC in the United States are the 2010 American Academy of Neurology standard for determination of BD/DNC in adults and the 2011 Society of Critical Care Medicine/American Academy of Pediatrics/Child Neurology Society standard for determination of BD/DNC in infants and children.