Brain Death: Knowledge and Opinion of Physicians from an Intensive Care Unit

ABSTRACT Objectives Verify the knowledge of ICU physicians about the diagnosis of brain death and the opinions of ICU physicians about organ donation. Methods Quantitative, exploratory, descriptive and cross-sectional study. Methods We interviewed 38 physicians at an adult ICU of a State hospital in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The data collection instrument was split into three parts: the first to gather professional information; the second was composed of nine closed-ended, multiple-choice questions, which addressed technical criteria for the diagnosis of brain death; a further seven questions asked for the interviewee’s opinion on brain death and organ donation. Results The study population had a mean age of 38.45 years (DP = 10.58). In relation to training time, the average was 11.87 years (DP = 8.94). The overall quantity of correct answers to the conceptual questions was 8.07 (DP = 0.78). Of the 38 participants, only 12 (31.57%) correctly answered all the questions. Two interviewees (5.2%) did not feel confident about conducting the clinical examination. No significant differences were found between the number of correct anwers and the age and/or gender of the interviewee. Conclusion Only the professional group of intensivists had participants who answered all the technical questions correctly. However, some basic issues require deeper discussion. It is important to incorporate disciplines that approach this subject in undergraduate courses in the health area, which may help diffuse educational attitudes. Such themes should also be extensively addressed in specialization courses in intensive care in order to improve training about the whole context involving brain death and the donation-transplant process, since this process must be absolutely watertight at every step.