VALUE OF INTRAVENOUS CEREBRAL-ANGIOGRAPHY FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF CEREBRAL DEATH

The success of transplantations relies on uninjured organs i.e., havested before circulatory failure. At present, french law concerning cerebral death criteria (circulaire ministerielle no 3 du 21.01.91) requires the association of clinical patterns and 2 repeated, unreactive and flat electroencephalographic (EEG) tracings. Blood and urinary samples also need to be free from any nervous system depressant drug, the patient has not to be hypothermic. These obligations are not always compatible with patients statuts or local organization. The consequence might be organ loss or delay in harvesting schedule. A review ot the litterature points out the trap in realization and analysis of EEG in this kind of intensive care patients. Angiogram, on the opposite, is influenced neither by nervous system depressant drug nor by hypothermia. As it is in some other western countries, it should be proposed as the reference.