Temperature and brain death determination: need for updated criteria

Abstract

For an excellent review on the diagnosis of brain death, the interested reader is directed to the review of Machado appearing in this journal; the author reviews all aspects of brain death and cites nine different references where the minimum temperature for brain death exams appear to have been at least 32°C. Given the new data listed above, it is clearly time for a reconsideration of the how we approach the exam for diagnosis of brain death – normal or near normal temperatures of 36°C and above are very reasonable starting points.

Keywords

• brain death
• temperature
• coma