Pilot study and suggestions on brain death determination training for physicians in secondary comprehensive hospitals in China
10.3760/cma.j.cn421203-20241128-00239
- VernacularTitle:中国二级综合医院医师脑死亡判定培训试点研究与建议
- Author:
Linlin FAN
1
;
Pengxiang LI
;
Man XIA
;
Lin FU
;
Hao LIU
;
Xiaowei XU
;
Yingying SU
Author Information
1. 首都医科大学宣武医院神经内科 国家脑损伤评价医疗质量控制中心脑死亡判定工作组，北京 100053
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Brain death;
Brain death determination;
Standardized training;
Secondary comprehensive hospital
- From:
Chinese Journal of Organ Transplantation
2025;46(10):717-722
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To evaluate the feasibility of training physicians from secondary comprehensive hospitals in the clinical assessment of brain death and to provide recommendations for nationwide implementation.Methods:This prospective cohort study enrolled physicians who completed standardized training in clinical brain death determination at five pilot hospitals between June and December 2023. Participants were from internal medicine, neurology, critical care, emergency, or anesthesiology departments of secondary comprehensive hospitals and had ≥5 years of clinical experience. Organ donation coordinators and surgeons involved in organ donation or transplantation were excluded. The training program comprised four modules: didactic lectures, bedside demonstrations, simulation-based practice, and written theoretical assessment with review. The theoretical assessment was considered qualified if the score was 60 or above. Participants were categorized into ≥80 and <80 groups based on assessment scores. Between-group comparisons were conducted using rank-sum or chi-square tests.Results:A total of 191 physicians from 74 secondary comprehensive hospitals were enrolled. Most held a bachelor's degree [89.5%(171/191)] and had intermediate [47.1%(90/191)] or associate senior [36.1%(69/191)] professional titles; [59.7%(114/191)] were from non-neurology specialties. The overall pass rate was 99.5% (190/191), with a mean score of 82.4±7.1. Compared with those scoring<80 (56 participants), physicians scoring ≥80 (135 participants) differed significantly by professional title, province, and department ( P=0.014, 0.019 and 0.039). The proportion scoring<80 was higher among junior/intermediate versus senior titles [38.0%(41/108) vs 18.1%(15/83), P=0.003), and among non-neurology/critical care departments (emergency, internal medicine, anesthesiology) versus neurology/critical care [39.7%(31/78) vs 22.1%(25/113), P=0.009]. Only 2.09%(4/191) achieved a perfect score. Across all test items, the overall error rate was 14.99%(700/4 670). The five knowledge points with the highest error rates were mistriggering of mechanical ventilation [96.97%(32/33)], corneal reflex [42.25%(30/71)], spinal reflexes [24.25%(65/268)], documentation of the determination [21.21%(7/33)], and the apnea test procedure [20.73%(57/275)]. Conclusions:The pilot hospitals can effectively deliver clinical training for brain death determination, supporting nationwide promotion. However, physicians' theoretical grounding in neurology at secondary comprehensive hospitals appears relatively weak. Training curricula should be optimized to further improve training quality.
