ABSTRACT
Irreversibility is essential to the diagnosis of brain death and is established by the lack of improvement in the neurologic examination for 12-24h. Factors that may confound this diagnosis include generalized seizures, centrally active drug effects, hypothermia, and cardiovascular or metabolic instability, because all may reversibly depress brain function. Therefore, it is also important that the cause of brain death is known and sufficient to account for this diagnosis. In young children, the potential for recovery from neurologic insults may be less predictable than in adults, so it is recommended that an experienced pediatric neurologist be consulted to evaluate these young brain-injured patients.
