ABC of brain stem death. From brain death to brain stem death.

Brain death was first described clinically in 1959 when two French physicians' identified a condition they called "coma depasse"-literally, a state beyond coma. Twenty of their 23 patients were suffering from primary intracranial disorders and the other three from the cerebral sequelae of -; cardiorespiratory arrest. All the classic features of brain death are found in this early report. Articles published in the early 1960s already suggested that the cerebral circulation was "blocked" by raised intracranial pressure in most of these cases. . : .; ; *. .The report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School in yrcptivity ad OSnIVIIy y .