J Neurosurg Sci
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During centuries, the loss of spontaneous cardio-pulmonary function was found to predict permanent non-functioning of the "organism as a whole", therefore serving adequately as a criterion of death, but during the era of Intensive Care, there was a shift to brain-oriented definitions of death, ie, the irreversible cessation of brain functions, started to be considered as the main reason for cessation of functioning of the "organism as a whole". A concept or definition of death is related to the question: What is it "about human life, which is irreplaceable by any artifice, and that its loss is so essential, that the individual who loses it ought to be called dead?" Further work has been centered on how much of the brain needs to be dead, before a person can be declared dead on neurological grounds: "whole brain", "brainstem death" ("brain as a whole") and "higher brain" formulations of death. ⋯ I propose a concept of death that excludes those states taking in consideration the basic mechanisms of consciousness generation in human beings: "The irreversible loss of consciousness, considering both its capacity and its content". This definition of human death takes consideration as hallmarks, both components of consciousness which are essentially significant to the nature of man, to provide the functioning of the "organism as a whole".
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Penetrating cranio-cerebral trauma caused by fire-arm constitute the most frequent penetrating wounds in civilian ambit; in these cases the great extention of cerebral damage is the result of distructive forces generated by high velocity which moves this bodies. In civilian ambit cranio-cerebral wounds caused by penetrating bodies, but moved by low cinetic energy are increasing constantly, due to the development of industrial activities. ⋯ We think that for these traumatic event, we can adapt the same valutations criteria used for wounds caused by fire-arms. For what concerns surgery of such injuries, we consider the emergency operation the best solution; generally in these cases the purpose of surgery is not the removal of devitalized tissues, evacuation of hematomas or removal of bone fragments or of penetrating bodies as happen in cases of penetrating bodies moved by high cinetic energy, but for the possible complications which can result immediately or after the trauma.