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New guidelines for determining brain death issued by American Academy of Neurology

By Michael Kaplen

The American Academy of Neurology has released new guidelines for determining brain death in adults. Updated for the first time in 15 years, the recommendations provide step-by-step instructions to help guide clinical decision making.

"The brain death diagnosis can be made only after a comprehensive clinical evaluation and often involves more than 25 separate assessments," lead author Eelco Wijdicks, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said in a news release.

The guidelines are published in the June 8 issue of Neurology.

The authors report that new data have confirmed the effectiveness of earlier recommendations. They saw no evidence of recovery of neurologic function after a diagnosis of brain death using the criteria from the 1995 practice parameter.

The authors report insufficient evidence to determine the minimally acceptable observation period to ensure that neurologic functions have ceased irreversibly. They say this will be highly variable patient to patient, and there is no general rule.

These new guidelines focus on patients 18 years and older. Another group is currently working on new brain death recommendations for children. Those recommendations are expected to be released in a couple of months. Some predict those guidelines will include a prescribed observation period.

The American Academy of Neurology will be hosting an online conference about the new guidelines Monday, June 21. The authors will present at the session and take questions. The registration deadline for continuing medical education credit is June 16. Clinicians wanting to participate will need a computer with Microsoft Office Powerpoint and a telephone. For more information and to access the audio conference, visit the academy's Web site.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on June 19, 2010 (boomark / email).