Objectives:

To investigate the aetiologies of sudden unexpected death from natural causes in children aged 1-18 years by retrospective examination of autopsy records from a single centre.

Materials and methods:

The post-mortem findings from 548 children (1996-2015) were examined. Details were entered into an established research database and categorized according to >400 pre-defined criteria.

Results:

There were 265 previously apparently healthy children and 283 with pre-existing, potentially life-limiting, conditions. There were more males than females (M:F 1.4:1), and deaths were more frequent in the winter. Infection was commonest accounting for 43% of all deaths. Non-infectious diseases were identified as cause of death in 28%, and 29% of all deaths were unexplained. There was no significant difference in the proportions of deaths in each category between the previously healthy children and those with pre-existing conditions.

Conclusion:

Sudden unexpected death is a rare presentation of death in childhood and those with pre-existing conditions may be more at risk. Standardisation of the post-mortem procedure in such cases may result in more ancillary investigations performed as routine and may reduce the number of cases that are ‘unexplained’.

中文翻译：

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儿童突然意外死亡的原因：专家中心的尸检结果

目标：

通过对来自单一中心的尸检记录进行回顾性检查，调查 1-18 岁儿童因自然原因意外猝死的病因。

材料和方法：

检查了 548 名儿童（1996-2015 年）的尸检结果。将详细信息输入已建立的研究数据库并根据> 400个预定义标准进行分类。

结果：

有 265 名先前明显健康的儿童和 283 名先前存在的、可能限制生命的疾病。男性多于女性（M:F 1.4:1），冬季死亡更频繁。感染是最常见的，占所有死亡人数的 43%。非传染性疾病被确定为 28% 的死因，29% 的死亡原因不明。既往健康儿童与既往疾病儿童在每个类别中的死亡比例没有显着差异。

结论：

突然意外死亡是儿童时期罕见的死亡表现，那些有既往疾病的人可能面临更大的风险。在这种情况下，尸检程序的标准化可能会导致更多的辅助调查作为常规进行，并可能减少“无法解释”的病例数量。