Brain Death And Disorders Of Consciousness

Although some decades have passed, there are still worldwide controversies about a concept of human death on neurological grounds. There are also disagreements on the diagnostic criteria for brain death, whether clinical alone or clinical plus ancillary tests. Moreover, some scholars who were strong defenders of a brain-based standard of death are now favoring a circulatory-respiratory standard. The study of coma is extremely important because lesions of the brain are responsible for quality of life in patients or cause of death. The main goal of Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness is to provide a suitable scientific platform to discuss all topics related to human death and coma.

This collection is the perfect reference guide & study aid for anybody who is interested in the various medical aspects of death or taking courses on brain death & disorders of consciousness. Some topics that are covered include: Locked-in syndrome, brain death, minimally conscious state, clinical death, persistent vegetative state, chronic coma & much more. This reference guide is also useful for a wide range of medical & anatomy courses.

This text provides an overview of the processes of brain death, exploring the concepts and historical approach of human death, clinical examinations of brain-dead patients, ancillary tests in coma and brain death, bioethical discussions of brain death and its relationship with some consciousness disturbances, and the legal considerations of human death. Unlike other, narrow-focus reference this book encompasses a wide spectrum of issues including medical, legal, bioethical and historical aspects.

The prominent contributors provide background information, survey the issues and positions, and take controversial stands from a wide variety of perspectives, including neuroscience and neurology, law and policy, and philosophy and ethics.

Consciousness is a state of being awake and aware of one's self and surroundings according to the American Academy of Neurology. A conscious person is aware of things through thoughts and the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. In disorders of consciousness, the patient has trouble being awake, or being aware, or both. Thanks to advances in science and technology, we learn new information about diseases every day. This book includes current approaches to some important issues related to disorders of consciousness.

This revised and expanded second edition discusses the assessment and treatment of patients recovering from coma and disorders of consciousness. Besides diagnostic, prognostic and ethical issues, this book describes well-established techniques and procedures, and also techniques under development. New chapters include consciousness theories, issues relating to long-term care, and neuromodulation treatments. Coma and Disorders of Consciousness, Second Edition is a comprehensive review of the field for clinicians and researchers, regardless of whether they are already familiar with the difficult but exciting field of disorders of consciousness.

Consciousness is one of the most significant scientific problems today. Renewed interest in the nature of consciousness - a phenomenon long considered not to be scientifically explorable, as well as increasingly widespread availability of multimodal functional brain imaging techniques (EEG, ERP, MEG, fMRI and PET), now offer the possibility of detailed, integrated exploration of the neural, behavioral, and computational correlates of consciousness. The present volume aims to confront the latest theoretical insights in the scientific study of human consciousness with the most recent behavioral, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, pharmacological and neuropathological data on brain function in altered states of consciousness such as: brain death, coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome, dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia, hysteria, general anesthesia, sleep, hypnosis, and hallucinations. The interest of this is threefold. First, patients with altered states of consciousness continue to represent a major clinical problem in terms of clinical assessment of consciousness and daily management. Second, the exploration of brain function in altered states of consciousness represents a unique lesional approach to the scientific study of consciousness and adds to the worldwide effort to identify the "neural correlate of consciousness". Third, new scientific insights in this field have major ethical and social implications regarding our care for these patients.