Brain death: timing of apnea testing in primary brain stem lesion

G Schwarz; G Litscher; G Pfurtscheller; H V Schalk; E Rumpl; G Fuchs

doi:10.1007/BF01706483

Brain death: timing of apnea testing in primary brain stem lesion

Intensive Care Med. 1992;18(5):315-6. doi: 10.1007/BF01706483.

Authors

G Schwarz¹, G Litscher, G Pfurtscheller, H V Schalk, E Rumpl, G Fuchs

Affiliation

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, University of Graz, Austria.

PMID: 1527266
DOI: 10.1007/BF01706483

Abstract

In a 73-year-old patient complete areflexia of the cerebral and peripheral nerves following the rupture of an aneurysm of the basilar artery was diagnosed. During apnea testing the spectral analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) revealed an irreversible shift of peak from 6 to 3 Hz within the low-frequency bands. These findings suggest that apnea testing in patients with primary lesion of the brain stem should be carried out only after an isoelectric EEG.

Publication types

Case Reports
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Apnea / diagnosis*
Basilar Artery
Brain Death / diagnosis*
Electroencephalography
Humans
Intracranial Aneurysm / physiopathology*
Rupture, Spontaneous
Time Factors