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Crib Death: Sudden Unexplained Death of Infants—The Pathologist’s Viewpoint
By Giulia Ottaviani
146 pp, $79.95
Heidelberg, Germany, Springer-Verlag, 2007
ISBN-13 978-3-5404-9370-9
JAMA. 2008;299(9):1073-1074.
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Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.—Francis Bacon, Essays
Death in its most untimely form, crib death, is the most common cause of natural fatality during the first year of life. It strikes 1 apparently healthy child among approximately 1000, and it is relatively more frequent in boys younger than 6 months who belong to families with lower socioeconomic status and in children who have had recent upper respiratory tract infection during the winter months. Other than the aforementioned established epidemiologic factors, almost everything else regarding crib death remains controversial.
The cause of crib death remains unknown in up to 80% of cases—even after the performance of a routine autopsy. Such ignorance on the part of physicians (and parents) has been compounded by "tales" that involve scientific reasoning to varying . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Syed A. Hoda, MD, Reviewer;
Brian D. Robinson, MD, Reviewer
New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Center
Weill Cornell Medical College
New York, New York
sahoda@med.cornell.edu
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