NCT05306327

Neurologic Physiology After Removal of Therapy (NeuPaRT)

Neurologic Physiology After Removal of Therapy (NeuPaRT): Pilot Multicentre Feasibility Study

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 158 (estimated)
• Sponsor: London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute OR Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine when brain function stops compared to when the heart stops by monitoring electrical brain activity in patients who are taken off life support and progress to death in the intensive care unit.

Detailed description

There are many Canadians who need an organ transplant and who will never get one. In the past, people could only be organ donors after being declared brain dead. The dead donor rule serves this purpose by ensuring that death determination precedes organ retrieval. In Canada, death determination occurs in one of two ways. In neurologic determination of death (NDD), death is declared upon completion of a standardized neurologic assessment that confirms permanent loss of brain activity. In donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD), death is declared 5 minutes after circulatory arrest. By confirming permanent loss of brain activity, the current NDD process protects donors from suffering and maintains stakeholder trust. In contrast, the current DCDD process assumes, but does not explicitly confirm, permanent loss of brain activity when death is declared 5 minutes after circulatory arrest. While this assumption is rooted in a strong physiologic rationale, lack of compelling evidence regarding cessation of brain activity in humans contributes to ongoing mistrust of the DCDD process among healthcare and public stakeholders.

Conditions

• Determination of Death

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	electroencephalography (EEG)	1. brain cortical activity using full scalp 2. cerebral blood flow velocity 3. during the dying process following planned withdrawal of life sustaining measures (WLSM)

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-10-18
• Primary completion: 2027-03-01
• Completion: 2027-03-01
• First posted: 2022-04-01
• Last updated: 2026-01-30

Locations

5 sites across 1 country: Canada