In the era of organ donation, diagnosing brain death is an important issue. The concept of brain death and brain-stem death, its relevance to organ donation and its legal implications are new to many. India enacted a law in 1994 to legalize brain-stem death. Clinical evaluation: Establishment of the cause of coma (reversible/irreversible) Exclude the presence of a CNS-depressant drug effect by history, drug screen, or, if available, drug plasma levels below the therapeutic range.
Prior use of hypothermia (e.g., after cardiopulmonary resuscitation for cardiac arrest) may delay drug metabolism. The legal alcohol limit for driving (blood alcohol content 0.08%) is a practical threshold below which an examination to determine brain death could reasonably proceed. There should be no recent administration or continued presence of neuromuscular blocking agents (this can be defined by the…
