Abstract

MACHADO CURBELO, Calixto; PEREZ NELLAR, Jesús  and  SCHERLE MATAMOROS, Claudio. ¿Por qué la muerte encefálica es sinónimo de muerte del individuo?. Rev cuba anestesiol reanim [online]. 2010, vol.9, n.1, pp. 14-23. ISSN 1726-6718.

Introduction: The scientific-technical development of XX century allowed a new medical specialty, the intensive therapy. This medicine advance made that the physician faced a clinical state difficult to imagine some times ago, where the ills lost their functions integrate in encephalon, while other body organs maintained integrity. To arised the following question: These ills with an association a dead encephalon with a live body were lives or deaths? Thus appears the concept of encephalic death (ED), synonym of subject death. Material and Methods: Authors made a review of the death formulations with neurologic bases, as well as of physiopathologic mechanisms for the consciousness generation. Results: It is demonstrated that consciousness is the function providing the human attributes essential of human existence where each subject be unique and to establish the higher level of organism integration. We propose a new death formulation on neurologic basis explaining why the ED is an irreversible state and also an event occurring at the end of disappearance of functions integrated in encephalon. Conclusions: Authors propose a new death formulation allows confirming that ED is synonym of subject death.

Keywords : Death; encephalic death; consciousness; irreversible status.

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