‘Save The Brain’

<h3></h3> A global decline in autopsy rates has been attributed to several factors including changes in healthcare economics and professional attitudes but, in particular to advancements in medical technology enabling more accurate antemortem diagnosis. We present the cases of five adults treated for coma in the Intensive Care Unit of an Irish tertiary level university hospital. All patients were extensively investigated ante-mortem with clinical neurophysiology and radiological studies. Interval electroencephalogram (EEG) data was collected in all cases, and somatosensory evoked potentials in four of five cases. All patients died and had postmortem neuropathological examinations, revealing clinically important and often surprising results, including three cases of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy without cortical involvement. We demonstrate, using comparative antemortem and postmortem data collected in these five cases, that clinicopathologic correlation remains an indispensable tool in the provision of quality medical care and continued learning.