Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association
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Review Case Reports
Persistent cerebral blood flow by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography in an asphyxiated newborn meeting brain death diagnosis: case report and review of the literature.
We want to illustrate the difficulty of establishing a brain death diagnosis in newborn children and how an easy and useful tool, the transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, can leave an unexpected result that complicates the process despite the rest of the diagnostic tests. We describe a 36-week gestation newborn male who was diagnosed of brain death after asphyxiated and offered for donation. ⋯ Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography is a very useful method to assess cerebral blood flow. However, caution and individualization are needed when interpreting this complementary exam, especially in highly conflictive situations like brain death diagnosis.