Abstract

AGUILERA, B.  and  SUAREZ-MIER, M.P.. The importance of the death scene investigation and family interview  in cases of sudden unexpected infant death. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2002, n.30, pp.33-38. ISSN 1988-611X.

The sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the principal cause of sudden unexpected death during the post neonatal period in developed countries. It is defined as the sudden death of an infant under one year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation including a complete autopsy with the relevant analyses, examination of the death scene and a review of the clinical history. Recently it was shown that cases of infanticide had been diagnosed as SIDS because of poor investigation of the circumstances and scene of death. In this report we stress the importance of this part of the post mortem investigation and we summarize some of the guidelines published on the subject.

Keywords : Sudden Infant Death; death scene investigation.

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