Ciritella P
Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, Ospedale Generale Regionale, S. Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia.
Minerva Anestesiol. 1993 Oct;59(10):505-18.
The concept of death has undergone many changes in the centuries depending on ages and social contexts. However death has always been identified by heart and respiratory irreversible arrest. In the last 30 years this concept has been suddenly and deeply modified by cardiocirculatory and respiratory support techniques. The real boundary between life and death is cerebral activity. When this latter causes the subject can be considered dead. In the large majority of cases the clinical and this strumental neurological findings are sufficient for the diagnosis of brain death. However in many other cases this diagnosis may be difficult because of problems in the ascertainment of the complete and irreversible lack of cerebral activities. In these cases many an strumental techniques (evoked potentials, Doppler and nuclear medicine studies) can help in the diagnosis.
几个世纪以来，死亡的概念因时代和社会背景的不同而经历了许多变化。然而，死亡一直被定义为心脏和呼吸的不可逆停止。在过去30年里，心脏循环和呼吸支持技术突然且深刻地改变了这一概念。生与死的真正界限是大脑活动。当大脑活动停止时，该个体可被视为死亡。在绝大多数情况下，临床和仪器检查的神经学结果足以诊断脑死亡。然而，在许多其他情况下，由于难以确定大脑活动完全且不可逆地停止，这种诊断可能会很困难。在这些情况下，许多仪器技术（诱发电位、多普勒和核医学研究）有助于诊断。
