As of: February 7, 2024, 11:32 a.m
By: Judith Braun
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Researchers examined video recordings of children who suddenly died in their sleep.
They discovered another cause of SIDS.
In Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a previously completely healthy baby dies unexpectedly.
According to the
Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA),
these deaths are fortunately rare.
If it happens anyway, it's probably the parents' biggest nightmare.
Thanks to prevention measures and education, the number of SIDS is decreasing today.
Researchers have now even discovered a possible cause of SIDS.
According to the Ärzte Zeitung Online,
a study on those cases that really remain unexplained
provides further insights - thanks to video analysis.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): Video analysis shows that it is often preceded by seizures
Fortunately, cases of sudden infant death syndrome are decreasing.
© imagebroker/IMAGO
In their study published in the journal
Neurology
, a research team led by Dr.
Laura Gould reported information on 301 suddenly deceased infants from the SUDC (“Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood”) registry at New York University.
The scientists came across seven cases whose times of death were recorded using baby cameras or surveillance cameras.
According to
Ärzte Zeitung Online,
after an analysis of the video documentation, epilepsy-like seizures seem to play a central role in these cases - even though the children affected had not previously suffered from epilepsy.
There was clear to unequivocal evidence of a seizure in all of them in the minutes before death.
The seven children were all between one and a half and two years old.
Similar to the other deceased infants whose cases were evaluated for the study, all seven infants died in their sleep.
In addition, all of them died in the prone position and - except one - all died face down.
The autopsy also revealed that four of the seven infants suffered from an infection in the days before their deaths and two others suffered from a mild infection.
However, no connection to the death was suspected here.
Genetic analyzes also provided no evidence of an increased risk of epilepsy or cardiac arrhythmias.
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Sudden infant death syndrome: Seizures shortly before death can last over a minute
Eight doctors evaluated the video documentation of the seven deceased children and all saw signs of a seizure immediately before death in four of the children.
In another case, two thirds of the doctors were convinced that sudden infant death syndrome was preceded by a seizure.
These five children with definite to very probable seizures before death were recorded with continuous cameras at the time of death.
It turned out that the seizures in these cases lasted around 30 to 90 seconds.
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Another third of the doctors also saw signs of seizures in the remaining two infants.
However, the assessment was made more difficult by the fact that the recordings were only started with movements and sounds, which meant that there were always gaps in between.
The results also showed that one of the infants who were admitted continuously died during the seizure.
The remaining six children lived for a few minutes afterwards and often had breathing abnormalities.
In addition, an infant vomited during the seizure and suffocated.
Dr.
Gould and her research team believe that a large proportion of children who die from SIDS are caused by a seizure.
This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication. It in no way replaces a visit to the doctor. Our editorial team is not allowed to answer individual questions about medical conditions.