Definitions

SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) was first defined in the late 1960s and was refined in 1991 as “the sudden death of an infant under one year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including performance of a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history”. (Willinger et al, 1991). Recently there is much debate about how these apparently sleep related unexpected deaths should be classified.