To make the diagnosis of brain death the examiner must be able recognise responses that do not require brain function; stimulus-provoked movements should be termed reflexes and spontaneous movements termed automatisms; brain death-associated automatisms may be present in up to 50% of brain death cases

Brain death is the irreversible loss of all functions of the brain, including the brainstem. The three essential findings in brain death are coma (unresponsiveness), absence of brainstem reflexes, and apnoea