Have you ever been confused about the concept of brain death, or struggled to explain brain death to a patient’s family or your fellow clinicians? Join the Behind the Knife Surgical Palliative Care team and our special guest, neurologist & neurointensivist Dr. Sarah Wahlster, as we explore the 2023 Pediatric & Adult Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Consensus Practice Guideline and what this updated guideline means for our practice in surgical palliative care!

Hosts:
Dr. Katie O’Connell (@katmo15) is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in the division of Trauma, Burn, and Critical Care Surgery. She is a trauma surgeon, palliative care physician, Director of Surgical Palliative Care, and founder of the Advance Care Planning for Surgery Clinic at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA.

Dr. Virginia Wang is a PGY-3 General Surgery resident at the University of Washington.

Guest:
Dr. Sarah Wahlster (@SWahlster) is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Washington. She is a neurologist, neurointensivist, and Program Director of the Neurocritical Care Fellowship at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA.

Learning Objectives:
·      Understand the concept of assent and how it can be helpful in communicating with families of patients who have sustained brain death
·      Explain the main steps required for diagnosis of brain death (prerequisites, clinical exam, apnea testing, ancillary testing)
·      Understand key differences between the 2023 guideline and previous (2010 & 2011) guidelines
·      Be able to name the 3 accepted modalities of ancillary testing for brain death
·      Know basic communication best practices with families of patients who have sustained brain death from the surgical palliative care perspective (consistency of language & messaging; avoidance of phrases such as “life-sustaining treatment”, “comfort-focused measures”)

References:

1.     Greer, D. M., Kirschen, M. P., Lewis, A., Gronseth, G. S., Rae-Grant, A., Ashwal, S., Babu, M. A., Bauer, D. F., Billinghurst, L., Corey, A., Partap, S., Rubin, M. A., Shutter, L., Takahashi, C., Tasker, R. C., Varelas, P. N., Wijdicks, E., Bennett, A., Wessels, S. R., & Halperin, J. J. (2023). Pediatric and Adult Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Consensus Guideline. Neurology, 101(24), 1112–1132. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000207740

2.     Lewis, A., Kirschen, M. P., & Greer, D. (2023). The 2023 AAN/AAP/CNS/SCCM Pediatric and Adult Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Consensus Practice Guideline: A Comparison With the 2010 and 2011 Guidelines. Neurology. Clinical practice, 13(6), e200189. https://doi.org/10.1212/CPJ.0000000000200189

3.     AAN Interactive Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Evaluation Tool – https://www.aan.com/Guidelines/BDDNC

4.     AAN Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Checklist – https://www.aan.com/Guidelines/Home/GetGuidelineContent/1101

5.     Kirschen, M. P., Lewis, A., & Greer, D. M. (2024). The 2023 American Academy of Neurology, American Academy of Pediatrics, Child Neurology Society, and Society of Critical Care Medicine Pediatric and Adult Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria Determination Consensus Guidelines: What the Critical Care Team Needs to Know. Critical care medicine, 52(3), 376–386. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000006099

6.     Greer, D. M., Shemie, S. D., Lewis, A., Torrance, S., Varelas, P., Goldenberg, F. D., Bernat, J. L., Souter, M., Topcuoglu, M. A., Alexandrov, A. W., Baldisseri, M., Bleck, T., Citerio, G., Dawson, R., Hoppe, A., Jacobe, S., Manara, A., Nakagawa, T. A., Pope, T. M., Silvester, W., … Sung, G. (2020). Determination of Brain Death/Death by Neurologic Criteria: The World Brain Death Project. JAMA, 324(11), 1078–1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.11586

7.     Lele, A. V., Brooks, A., Miyagawa, L. A., Tesfalem, A., Lundgren, K., Cano, R. E., Ferro-Gonzalez, N., Wongelemegist, Y., Abdullahi, A., Christianson, J. T., Huong, J. S., Nash, P. L., Wang, W. Y., Fong, C. T., Theard, M. A., Wahlster, S., Jannotta, G. E., & Vavilala, M. S. (2023). Caseworker Cultural Mediator Involvement in Neurocritical Care for Patients and Families With Non-English Language Preference: A Quality Improvement Project. Cureus, 15(4), e37687. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.37687

Please visit https://behindtheknife.org to access other high-yield surgical education podcasts, videos and more.  

If you liked this episode, check out our recent episodes here: https://app.behindtheknife.org/listen