A new study published in Annals of Neurology provides insight into the neurobiology of dying. The research team performed continuous patient monitoring following Do Not Resuscitate - Comfort Care orders in patients with devastating brain injury to investigate the mechanisms and timing of events in the brain and the circulation during the dying process.

The findings may be helpful for developing treatment strategies of cardiac arrest and stroke that may complement efforts to reestablish circulation, and also inform the debate of organ donation after cardio-circulatory death, where death is declared between two and ten minutes following the cessation of circulatory function.

"After circulatory arrest, spreading depolarization marks the loss of stored electrochemical energy in brain cells and the onset of toxic processes that eventually lead to death. Importantly, it is reversible - up to a point - when the circulation is restored," said lead author Dr. Jens Dreier, of Universitätsmedizin Berlin, in Germany.