Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turk Pediatri Arsivi, cilt.48, sa.2, ss.165-168, 2013 (Scopus, TRDizin)
Currently, a large number of patients are waiting for organ transplantation and newborns with anencephaly are thought to be potential candidates for organ transplantation. A male baby was born to a 30-year-old mother after 38 weeks of gestation with a birth weight of 2430 g. Antenatal ultrasonography performed during the last months of the pregnancy revealed the presence of anencephaly. The parents were asked for organ donation from the infant and informed consent was obtained. The infant died at the 24th hours of his life. Therefore the diagnosis of the brain death which required two clinical examinations and two electroencephalographic examinations with an interval of 48 hours could not be achieved. It is not a practical approach in such cases to make a diagnosis of brain death with electroencephalography. Therefore, new approaches should be developed for anencephalic newborns. Ethical and legal issues on this subject are still controversial. Here we present the challenges posed by this case and also discuss the difficulty involved in choosing anencephalic neonates as candidate organ donors.