Cerebral Oximetry as an Auxiliary Diagnostic Tool in the Diagnosis of Brain Death

To investigate the efficacy of cerebral oximetry (CO) as an auxiliary diagnostic tool in brain death (BD).

This observational case-control study was performed on patients with suspected BD. Patients with diagnosis of BD confirmed by the brain death committee were enrolled as the BD group and other patients as the non-BD group. CO monitoring was performed at least 6 h, and cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (ScO₂) parameters were compared.

Mean ScO₂ level in the BD group was lower than non-brain-dead patients: mean difference for right lobe = 6.48 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.08-12.88) and for left lobe = 6.09 (95% CI -0.22-12.41). Maximum ScO₂ values in the BD group were significantly lower than the non-BD group: mean difference for right lobe = 8.20 (95% CI 1.64-14.77) and for left lobe = 9.54 (95% CI 3.06-16.03). The area under the curve for right lobe maximum ScO₂ was 0.69 (95% CI 0.55-0.81) and for left lobe was 0.72 (95% CI 0.58-0.84).

Maximum ScO₂ in brain-dead patients at CO monitoring is significantly low. However, this cannot be used to differentiate brain-dead and non-brain-dead patients. CO monitoring is therefore not an appropriate auxiliary diagnostic tool for confirming BD.