Subtotal Cerebral Circulatory Arrest With Preserved Breathing Activity: A Case Report

M A Wujtewicz; A Szarmach; K Chwojnicki; M Sawicki; R Owczuk

doi:10.1016/j.transproceed.2015.12.030

Subtotal Cerebral Circulatory Arrest With Preserved Breathing Activity: A Case Report

Transplant Proc. 2016 Jan-Feb;48(1):282-4. doi: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2015.12.030.

Authors

M A Wujtewicz¹, A Szarmach², K Chwojnicki³, M Sawicki⁴, R Owczuk⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland. Electronic address: magwuj@gumed.edu.pl.
² 2nd Department of Radiology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
³ Department of Neurology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
⁴ Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland.
⁵ Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.

PMID: 26915886
DOI: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2015.12.030

Abstract

A suspicion of brain death (BD) is the 1st step in the process of BD certification. Owing to its utmost importance, the process must yield an unequivocal answer so that the committee for the determination of BD has no doubts. We present a case of a patient with suspected BD, with a diagnosis of no intracranial flow in 4-vessel digital-subtraction angiography, who developed some reflexes just before clinical examination for BD assessment. The source of clinical findings was determined to be an extracranial blood supply, which enabled the preservation of trace lower brain stem functioning.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Aged
Angiography, Digital Subtraction / methods
Brain / blood supply
Brain Death / diagnosis*
Brain Death / physiopathology
Brain Infarction / complications
Brain Infarction / physiopathology*
Brain Stem / physiopathology
Cerebral Angiography / methods
Cerebrovascular Circulation*
Humans
Male
Preservation, Biological
Respiration