Castillo J L, Lavados M, Castillo S, Feuerhake W, Vergara F
Departamento de Ciencias Neurológicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile División Oriente.
Rev Med Chil. 1991 Aug;119(8):908-12.
The level of knowledge of clinical and legal aspects of brain death criteria was tested in 25 neurologists and 15 neurosurgeons. The answers were wrong or the questionnaire had not been responded in 36.9% of the cases. The highest percentage of mistakes concerned the apnea test and what Chilean law said regarding brain death. No differences were found between neurologists and neurosurgeons. Physicians with less than 10 years were better informed than those with more than 10 years of medical practice (p < 0.005). Although brain death as a criterion of death is accepted by Chilean law in order to donate organs for transplantation, a considerable percentage of physicians (30%) rejected this concept. The significant lack of knowledge found in this study may suggest that brain death diagnosis is being inadequately performed in many cases. This fact raises important medical, ethical and legal considerations.
对25名神经科医生和15名神经外科医生进行了脑死亡标准临床和法律方面知识水平的测试。在36.9%的案例中，答案错误或未对问卷作出回应。错误率最高的是关于呼吸暂停测试以及智利法律对脑死亡的规定。神经科医生和神经外科医生之间未发现差异。执业年限少于10年的医生比执业超过10年的医生了解情况更好（p < 0.005）。尽管智利法律认可脑死亡作为死亡标准以便进行器官移植捐赠，但相当比例（30%）的医生拒绝这一概念。本研究中发现的严重知识欠缺可能表明，在许多情况下脑死亡诊断执行不当。这一事实引发了重要的医学、伦理和法律考量。
