脑死亡的诊断是一个有趣而复杂的问题。自1968年哈佛医学院的“脑死亡标准”公布以后,脑死亡的概念在不断地深入演变。脑干死亡已被认为是脑死亡的基本标准。目前主要的问题是:需要一个绝对肯定的死亡诊断标准和能够从“客观”上证实脑死亡的检查方法。以往常用的检查如血管造影、脑血流图及回声多普勒均不能直接探查脑干功能。即使是被作为规范检查方法的脑电图,也还远远不尽人意。唯有短潜伏期的诱发电位则有可能成为测查脑干功能的有效手段。对36例年龄在6～65岁之间的脑死亡患者进行脑干听觉诱发电位(简称ABR)描记, The diagnosis of brain death is a funny and complicated issue. Since the publication of the Brain Death Standard at Harvard Medical School in 1968, the concept of brain death has been constantly evolving. Brain stem death has been considered the basic standard of brain death. The main problem at the moment is the need for an absolutely positive diagnosis of death and a test that will “objectively” prove brain death. Commonly used tests such as angiography, cerebral blood flow diagram and echo Doppler can not directly probe the brainstem function. Even the EEG that is used as a standard test is far from satisfactory. Only the short incubation period of the evoked potential is likely to be an effective measure of brainstem function. Brainstem auditory evoked potentials (ABR) were recorded in 36 patients with brain death aged 6 to 65 years,