Definition of the sudden infant death syndrome

BMJ 1994;308:1439 (28 May)

Letters

Definition of the sudden infant death syndrome

EDITOR, - The definition of the sudden infant death syndromewas called into question at the second international conferenceon the syndrome, in February 1992. As no consensus could bereached it was decided to keep the 1969 Beckwith definition:"the death of an infant or young child, which is unexpectedby history and in whom a thorough necropsy examination failsto reveal an adequate cause of death."

The issue is what constitutes an "adequate cause of death."To base the definition of the sudden infant death syndrome ona diagnosis of exclusion is questionable. There is no currentconsensus on the minimum postmortem investigations that areneeded to ensure that every cause of death has been excluded.There is also no consensus among pathologists on what is anadequate cause of death. The problem is not related to the identificationof lesions, as every careful paediatric pathologist reportssimilar . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Definition of the sudden infant death syndrome Keep current definition: E A Mitchell, D M P Becroft, R W Byard, P J Berry, P J Fleming, H F Krous, K Helweg-Larsen, M Valdes-Dapena, J Knighton, and K Knighton
BMJ 1994 309: 607. [Extract] [Full Text]

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