Do not confuse brain death with coma. Brain death corresponds to the cessation of cerebral functions, and therefore of breathing and of the heart, whereas these functions can be preserved in a coma.
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The brain death is a stadium, formerly referred to as ” coma exceeded”, in which the brain does not work anymore. As the brain controls many vital functions, the patient can no longer breathe on his own. Artificial respiration can allow blood circulation to supply the organs. The heart may continue to beat temporarily with the assistance of resuscitation.
Coma corresponds to an alteration of consciousness which may follow a head traumaa ischemia cerebral, a hemorrhagic strokea encephalitis, a brain tumour… It is a transitory state which leads to death in serious cases. The return to consciousness can be quite rapid or more gradual. He can go through other states of altered consciousness likevegetative state in which the patient opens the eyes.
Harvest brain dead organs
the coma is quite different from brain death because, in a coma, the blood continues to circulate in the brain, which makes it possible to maintain certain functions. The difference between coma and brain death is important because only people who are brain dead can be organ donors. Technical assistance is maintained on brain-dead people likely to donate their organs in order to keep them in good condition.
To find out if the patient is brain dead, several tests are carried out: absence of spontaneous muscular activity, no reflex, no reaction to pain, absence of breathing, electroencephalograms showing the absence of electrical activity of the brain and angiography (absence of blood circulation).
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