- A number of reversible lesions of the brainstem may closely mimic irreversible brain death:
- Severe Guillain–Barré and Miller–Fisher syndromes
- Bickerstaff’s brain stem encephalitis progressive cranial nerve dysfunction associated with ataxia, coma and apnoea
- Ventral pontine infarction associated with the ‘locked-in syndrome’, involving both corticospinal and corticobulbar tracts leading to tetraplegia
- Brainstem death testing should not be performed if these conditions are suspected
