FROM REANIMATION TO DEANIMATION (Intravital death of the brain during artificial respiration)

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Abstract
An attempt at reanimation of neurological patients is not always succesful, as after a longer or shorter period the patient may die in the ordinary way. In this case the whole body seems to die at the same time, which one could phrase "total death". However, it may happen that the brain dies primarily and the rest of the body days to weeks later ("dissociated death"). The terminal stage, characterized by the persistence of the individual without a functioning central nervous system, is named "status deanimatus". The brains of 12 patients who died after such a state of deanimation were described. It proved that the mysterious death of the brain during the second stage of the disease ("state of disintegration") was followed by autolysis. These enzymatic necrobiotic processes proved to have somewhat effaced the primary lesions, necessitating reanimation. The combination of primary lesions (traumatic, anoxaemic etc.) and secondary lesions (autolysis) led to a new and puzzling encephalopathy, whose pathogenesis and etiology were discussed.

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