President

= Whole brain death: state of total encephalic lesion (brainstem and cortical
structures).
From a clinical point of view, both “whole brain death” and “brainstem death”
identify the definitive loss of wakefulness, consciousness, respiration and
brainstem reflexes.
We stress that the “brain” represents all of the parts of the central nervous
system found in the cranium, which should be more properly called
“encephalus” (from the Greek encephalon: “inside the head”). The cerebellum,
scientifically, is the combination of telencephalon and diencephalon.
- telencephalon: it is the most superficial part made up of the telencephalic
cortex, the white substance and the base nuclei
- diencephalon: it is situaied inside the telencephalic white substance, and it is
made up of five parts (thalamus, epithalamus, metathalamus, hypothalamus,
subthalamus), it carries on below with the mesencephalon through the two
cerebral peduncles
- cerebellum: the part of the encephalon situated in the posterior cranial fossa
- brainstem: functionally connected with the cerebellum, it is itself made up of
three parts, in the caudal-cerebral sense:
- mesencephalon: higher continuation of the diencephalon, made up by the two
cerebral peduncles and by the quadrigeminal plate;
- pons: positioned ventrally to the cerebellum;
- myelencephalon: also called midolla oblungata, which carries on below,
without interruptions, with the spinal cord.
183