The evolution from the diagnosis of death to encephalic death

Abstract

Introduction: Death is a process whose diagnosis has varied with historical evolution. Objective: To demonstrate the different ways of diagnosing death until reaching encephalic death. Methods: A historical documentary review of the different ways of diagnosing death is carried out. Results: In ancient times the most important thing was breathing, when a person stopped breathing he/she was dead, then clinical death emerged and the heartbeat took the primary place, when the heart stopped death was diagnosed. At the end of 1950, European neurologists highlighted a stage in which the brain had ceased to function, presenting irreversible damage, but the functions of the heart and lungs could be maintained by artificial means. Mollaret and Goulon, professors at the Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris, in 1959, called this condition "coma dépassé", and clarified that it was a state beyond coma where "a dead brain is associated with a living body", thus the concept of encephalic death emerged and the diagnosis of death began to be made under the prism of the functions of the brain which has allowed the development of organ and tissue transplants. Conclusions: At present, death can be diagnosed by the cessation of heart functions or by the irreversible cessation of brain functions.