Impact of a Brain Death Workshop on the Knowledge of Attendees - European Medical Journal

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Impact of a Brain Death Workshop on the Knowledge of Attendees

1 Mins
Neurology
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Authors:
Haamid H. Siddique , 1 Yasser B. Abulhasan , 2 Maria Gomez , 3 Amina Asghar Randhawa , 4 Matthew Kirschen , 5 Panayiotis Varelas, , 6 * Lori Shutter 7
  • 1. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
  • 2. Faculty of Medicine, Health Sciences Center, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait
  • 3. National Center for Organ Donation and Transplant, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • 4. Ministry of Health and Prevention, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • 5. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, USA
  • 6. Albany Medical College, New York, USA
  • 7. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania, USA
*Correspondence to [email protected]
Disclosure:

The authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgements:

The authors would like to acknowledge support from the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Health and Prevention, and the Emirates Critical Care Conference organizers and staff.

Citation:
Neurol AMJ. ;3[1]:49-51. https://doi.org/10.33590/neurolamj/73154751.
Keywords:
Brain death (BD), determination of neurologic death, education.

Each article is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The goal of this educational initiative was to assess knowledge about the determination of brain death (BD) through surveys completed before, immediately after, and 10 months following a BD workshop.1

BD occurs less frequently than cardiopulmonary death, and determination of BD requires different skills then the determination of cardiopulmonary death. Guidelines for the determination of BD  were first published in 1995, and underwent revisions in 2010 and 2023.2-4 In spite of these guidelines, there is variable uniformity of BD testing policies across institutions.5  Educational programs regarding BD determination have proliferated with unknown effect. This study assessed whether a BD workshop led to improved and retained knowledge of participants regarding the process for determination of BD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This prospective observational study was conducted in the United Arab Emirates. A survey pertinent to BD determination in children and adults based on the 2023 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) guidelines was administered to all participants at the beginning and end of the workshop. Participants were then asked to complete the survey 10 months later to assess knowledge retention.

RESULTS

The pre-workshop survey had 250 respondents who were predominantly 20–59 years old (95%), with a slight male majority (53%; Table 1). Most participants were physicians (56%) or nurses (30%) and identified as critical care specialists. Prior to the workshop, 47% reported not performing BD evaluations, and 64% had not performed one in the last 6 months. At the 10-month follow-up, 42% had not performed a BD evaluation. Before the workshop, 62% felt comfortable explaining BD. This increased to 75% immediately after the workshop and remained high at 75% at the 10-month follow-up. Prior to the workshop 48% of respondents faced opposition from families when testing for BD, and 46% faced opposition from family when withdrawing care, with 19% citing legal restrictions. On follow-up, opposition decreased to 28% for BD testing and 38% for withdrawing care.

Average BD knowledge-based test scores improved from 48% pre-workshop to 71% immediately post-workshop, but declined to 50% on 10-month follow-up.

Table 1: Survey results.

CONCLUSION

The BD workshop provided education that persisted. Test scores on BD knowledge significantly improved immediately after the workshop, but declined to almost pre-test levels on 10-month follow-up. However, there was a sustained gain in comfort when explaining BD over the study period.

References
Siddique HH et al. Impact of a brain death workshop on the knowledge of attendees. Poster 19-001. AAN Annual Meeting, April 18-22, 2026. Wijdicks EF. Determining brain death in adults [RETIRED]. Neurology. 1995;45(5):1003-11. Wijdicks EFM et al. Evidence-based guideline update: determining brain death in adults: report of the Quality Standards Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurology. 2010;74(23):1911-8. Greer DM et al. Pediatric and adult brain death/death by Neurologic Criteria Consensus Guideline: report of the AAN Guidelines Subcommittee, AAP, CNS, and SCCM. Neurology. 2023;101(24):1112-32. Wang HH et al. Improving uniformity in brain death determination policies over time. Neurology. 2017;88(6):562-8.

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