Physiological signatures of brain death uncovered by intracranial multimodal neuromonitoring

 

Swarna Rajagopalan, Jovany Cruz Navarro, Sanam Baghshomali, Matthew Kirschen, David Greer, W Andrew Kofke, Ramani Balu

 

Background: The physiological and neurochemical changes that accompany brain death are not well described.

Materials and methods: A retrospective observational study of patients with acute brain injury who underwent intracranial multimodality neuromonitoring between October 2015 and June 2018. Patients were included for analysis either if brain death was diagnosed or refractory intracranial hypertension with persistent equalization of intracranial pressure (ICP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) developed.