Sudden infant death syndrome: a case report in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is an idiopathic condition that affects seemingly healthy infants under one year of age, whose death remains unexplained after the performance of a complete postmortem examination, toxicological analyses, genetic testing, death scene investigation, and a review of the mother’s and infant’s medical history. Detailed epidemiological, pathological, and forensic information has been reported regarding SIDS from the developed countries. However, SIDS information from developing countries is either widely scattered or non-existent. This is the first published case report of SIDS from the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A previously healthy 3 months old, white male infant was found dead after being placed to sleep in the prone position. The features of this case report closely parallel the classical features of SIDS cited in the world literature. The infant was healthy, male, between the ages of 2-12 months, discovered in the prone position and had a negative postmortem investigation. It is important for developing countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina to conduct detailed forensic investigations of deaths from SIDS and provide epidemiological, pathological, and circumstances of that information to the world’s collective knowledge.

Keywords

• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Bosnia and Herzegovina