Recognizing the Characteristics of Brain Death: Coma, Loss of Brainstem Reflexes, and Apnea

After understanding the causes of brain death, you also need to recognize its characteristics. Launching KlikDokter, there are three recognizable characteristics of brain death, namely coma, loss of brainstem reflexes, and apnea / stopping breathing. The following describes the characteristics of brain death:

1. Come

The first characteristic of brain death is coma. In a coma, someone who is brain dead will lose their response to the stimuli given. Brain dead patients cannot open their eyes (no eye response), do not move (no movement response), and do not make a sound (no verbal response), even though pain stimuli have been given. The cause of this coma also needs to be recognized so that it can be handled immediately. The causes of irreversible coma are usually related to severe brain injury, brain hemorrhage, brain ischemia, and so on.

2. Loss of brainstem reflexes

Loss of brainstem reflexes is another feature of brain death. The brainstem is an extension of the human brain and a link between the brain and the spinal cord. The brain stem has various basic functions, including regulation of consciousness, heart work, and respiratory function.

Assessment of brainstem reflexes is carried out to assess the function of the brainstem itself. Various things can be assessed, including: light reflex (the pupils of the eyes should shrink when exposed to light), corneal reflex (there should be movement of the eyelids when the cornea is touched with cotton), coughing and vomiting reflexes, and movement of the eyeball after the ear canal running cold water.

3. Apnea or stop breathing

The next characteristic of brain death is apnea or stopping breathing. To recognize the characteristics of this brain death, an apnea test is needed on the patient. If a person who is brain dead is released from a ventilator, it is necessary to assess whether he can breathe on his own. This can be seen from the movement of the chest or stomach, or the results of blood gas analysis. If the patient does not have an effort to breathe, then the apnea test is said to be positive, or in the sense that it supports the diagnosis of brain death.

After examining the three characteristics of brain death, observation can be carried out again for six hours. After a re-examination and the results are the same, the person will be declared brain dead or brain death. Someone who is brain dead can be considered dead.