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Previous Volume 344:1215-1221 April 19, 2001 Number 16 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF Purchase this article Editorial by Perrin, J. M. Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

Physicians, health care workers, members of the clergy, and laypeople throughout the world have accepted fully that a person is dead when his or her brain is dead. In the United States, the principle that death can be diagnosed by neurologic criteria (designated as brain death) is the basis of the Uniform Determination of Death Act,¹ although the law does not define any of the specifics of the clinical diagnosis. There is a clear difference between severe brain damage and brain death. The physician must understand this difference, because brain death means that life support is useless, and brain death . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Evolution of the Criteria for Brain Death

The Clinical Examination

Neurologic States That Can Mimic Brain Death

Confirmatory Tests

Conclusions

Source Information

From the Department of Neurology, Neurological and Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Wijdicks at the Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN 55905, or at wijde@mayo.edu.

References

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