Sudden death in children

Abstract

Introduction/Objective Sudden death in children may occur as a result of many diseases and accidents, while the cause often remains unknown. There are different terms in the literature that represent the causes of sudden death in children. The aim of our study was to determine the most common cause of sudden death in children admitted to the Clinic of Pediatrics.

Methods The retrospective study was conducted in the period from January 1, 1995 to December 31, 2015 and included 49 patients, aged from 10 days to 17 years, in whom death occurred in the Emergency Department and in the first 48 hours of hospitalization.

Results In 23 patients (47%) the cause of death was infection, in 10 patients (20%) heart failure, four patients (8%) died due to status epilepticus, the same number of patients (8%) died due to aspiration of a foreign body, while the rest of the patients died due to diabetic ketoacidosis (2%), rickets (2%), carbon monoxide poisoning (2%), hemolytic anemia (2%), suicide by hanging (2%), drowning (2%), sudden infant death syndrome (2%), and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (2%). Most of the patients in our study were infants (43%).

Conclusion Our study shows that infants are at the highest risk of sudden death, while the most frequent causes of death are infections and cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: sudden death; child; infant