Brain Death

"Brain Death" is a descriptor in the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Descriptors are arranged in a hierarchical structure, which enables searching at various levels of specificity.

MeSH information

Definition | Details | More General Concepts | Related Concepts | More Specific Concepts

A state of prolonged irreversible cessation of all brain activity, including lower brain stem function with the complete absence of voluntary movements, responses to stimuli, brain stem reflexes, and spontaneous respirations. Reversible conditions which mimic this clinical state (e.g., sedative overdose, hypothermia, etc.) are excluded prior to making the determination of brain death. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp348-9)

Descriptor ID	D001926
MeSH Number(s)	C10.228.140.151 C10.597.606.358.800.200.100 C23.550.260.159
Concept/Terms	Brain Death Brain Death Death, Brain Brain Dead Brain Deads Coma Depasse Irreversible Coma Irreversible Coma Coma, Irreversible

Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more general than "Brain Death".

Diseases [C]
Nervous System Diseases [C10]
Central Nervous System Diseases [C10.228]
Brain Diseases [C10.228.140]
Brain Death [C10.228.140.151]
Neurologic Manifestations [C10.597]
Neurobehavioral Manifestations [C10.597.606]
Consciousness Disorders [C10.597.606.358]
Unconsciousness [C10.597.606.358.800]
Coma [C10.597.606.358.800.200]
Brain Death [C10.597.606.358.800.200.100]
Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms [C23]
Pathologic Processes [C23.550]
Death [C23.550.260]
Brain Death [C23.550.260.159]

Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is related to "Brain Death".

Below are MeSH descriptors whose meaning is more specific than "Brain Death".

publications

Timeline | Most Recent

This graph shows the total number of publications written about "Brain Death" by people in this website by year, and whether "Brain Death" was a major or minor topic of these publications.

Bar chart showing 28 publications over 19 distinct years, with a maximum of 4 publications in 2024

To see the data from this visualization as text, click here.

Year	Major Topic	Minor Topic	Total
2000	1	0	1
2002	1	0	1
2003	0	1	1
2004	0	1	1
2005	0	1	1
2008	1	0	1
2010	0	1	1
2013	0	2	2
2014	3	0	3
2015	0	1	1
2016	0	1	1
2017	0	1	1
2018	0	1	1
2019	1	0	1
2020	0	1	1
2021	1	1	2
2022	0	1	1
2023	3	0	3
2024	1	3	4

Below are the most recent publications written about "Brain Death" by people in Profiles.

Nordham KD, Tatum D, Attia AS, Patel MB, Paramesh A, Duchesne JC, Nahmias J, Maiga AW, Peetz AB, Udekwu PO, Stiles A, Shell C, Stodghill JD, Maghsoudi T, Iacullo E, McLafferty B, Coonan E, Boudreau RM, Zimmerman SA, Shammassian B, Egodage T, Aramento I, Morris P, Metheny J, Farrell MS, Painter MD, McCabe OT, Spadafore P, Wong DT, Serrano J, Sciarretta JD, Kim P, Hayton R, Gonzales D, Murry J, Meadows K, Jacobson LE, Williams JM, Bernard AC, Smith B, Morrissey SL, Patel N, Tabello D, Teicher E, Chowdhury SM, Ahmad F, Marcos BS, West MA, Jacome TH, Davis G, Marks JA, Rattigan D, Haan JM, Lightwine K, Matsushima K, Park S, Santos A, Shrestha K, Sawyer R, VandenBerg S, Jean RJ, Hicks RC, Lueckel S, Bugaev N, Abosena W, Alvarez C, Lieser MJ, McDonald H, Dumas RP, Fitzgerald CA, Terzian WTH, Tian Y, Mousafeiris V, Mulita F, Berne JD, Mederos DR, Smith AA, Taghavi S. Impact of catastrophic brain injury guidelines on organ donation rates: Results of an EAST multicenter trial. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2025 01 01; 98(1):117-126.

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Chen S, Sade RM, Entwistle JW. Organ Donation by the Imminently Dead: Addressing the Organ Shortage and the Dead Donor Rule. J Med Philos. 2024 09 03; 49(5):458-469.

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Entwistle JW, Sade RM. Change the Law to Optimize Organ Donation. Am J Bioeth. 2024 06; 24(6):76-79.

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Greer DM, Lewis A, Kirschen MP, Rae-Grant A, Halperin JJ. Author Response: Pediatric and Adult Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Consensus Guideline: Report of the AAN Guidelines Subcommittee, AAP, CNS, and SCCM. Neurology. 2024 05 14; 102(9):e209368.

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Greer DM, Kirschen MP, Lewis A, Gronseth GS, Rae-Grant A, Ashwal S, Babu MA, Bauer DF, Billinghurst L, Corey A, Partap S, Rubin MA, Shutter L, Takahashi C, Tasker RC, Varelas PN, Wijdicks E, Bennett A, Wessels SR, Halperin JJ. Pediatric and Adult Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Consensus Guideline. Neurology. 2023 12 12; 101(24):1112-1132.

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Jaffa MN, Kirschen MP, Tuppeny M, Reynolds AS, Lim-Hing K, Hargis M, Choi RK, Schober ME, LaBuzetta JN. Response to "Some Contributions on Standardized Education for Brain Death Determination". Neurocrit Care. 2023 12; 39(3):742-743.

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Jaffa MN, Kirschen MP, Tuppeny M, Reynolds AS, Lim-Hing K, Hargis M, Choi RK, Schober ME, LaBuzetta JN. Enhancing Understanding and Overcoming Barriers in Brain Death Determination Using Standardized Education: A Call to Action. Neurocrit Care. 2023 10; 39(2):294-303.

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Kumar SR, Chyou D, Goldberg D. Effect of Acuity Circles Allocation Policy on Local Use of Donation After Circulatory Death Donor Livers. Liver Transpl. 2022 06; 28(6):1103-1107.

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Molnar MZ, Hall IE, Raghavan D, Shihab F, Imlay H, Hanson KE, Gomez CA, Campsen J, Kim R, Baker N, Rofaiel G. Kidney transplantation from SARS-CoV-2-positive deceased donor. Am J Transplant. 2022 04; 22(4):1280-1282.

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Dodaro MG, Seidenari A, Marino IR, Berghella V, Bellussi F. Brain death in pregnancy: a systematic review focusing on perinatal outcomes. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2021 05; 224(5):445-469.

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