Maiese A, La Russa R, Arcangeli M, Volonnino G, De Matteis A, Frati P, Fineschi V. Multidisciplinary approach to suspected sudden unexpected infant death caused by milk-aspiration: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2020; 8(18): 4128-4134 [PMID: 33024771 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i18.4128]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Vittorio Fineschi, MD, PhD, Director, Full Professor, Department of Anatomy, Histology, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics, Sapienza University of Roma, Viale Regina Elena 336, Roma 00185, Italy. vfinesc@tin.it
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, Legal
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2020; 8(18): 4128-4134 Published online Sep 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i18.4128
Multidisciplinary approach to suspected sudden unexpected infant death caused by milk-aspiration: A case report
Aniello Maiese, Raffaele La Russa, Mauro Arcangeli, Gianpietro Volonnino, Alessandra De Matteis, Paola Frati, Vittorio Fineschi
Aniello Maiese, Department of Surgical Pathology, Medical, Molecular and Critical Area, Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa 56126, Italy
Raffaele La Russa, Gianpietro Volonnino, Alessandra De Matteis, Vittorio Fineschi, Department of Anatomy, Histology, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics, Sapienza University of Roma, Roma 00185, Italy
Mauro Arcangeli, Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila 67100, Italy
Paola Frati, Department SAIMLAL, Sapienza University of Roma, Roma 00185, Italy
Author contributions: Maiese A performed the majority of experiments and wrote the manuscript; La Russa R and Fineschi V designed the study and corrected the manuscript; Arcangeli M, Volonnino G and De Matteis A participated to the collection of the human material; Frati P is the guarantor; Frati P and Fineschi V served as scientific advisor and participate to the collection of human material.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was granted by the Judicial Authority governing specific information included herein.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no competing interests to declare.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Vittorio Fineschi, MD, PhD, Director, Full Professor, Department of Anatomy, Histology, Forensic Medicine and Orthopedics, Sapienza University of Roma, Viale Regina Elena 336, Roma 00185, Italy. vfinesc@tin.it
Received: April 14, 2020 Peer-review started: April 14, 2020 First decision: July 25, 2020 Revised: August 2, 2020 Accepted: August 25, 2020 Article in press: August 25, 2020 Published online: September 26, 2020 Processing time: 160 Days and 16 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The most frequent causes of pulmonary aspiration were caused by milk (31.8%). Predisposing factors include any condition that alters the state of consciousness or creates dysfunction of deglutition. In general, Gastric contents are related to aspiration pneumonia and present in the lungs of 30% to 40% of infants whose deaths are attributed to sudden infant death. The postmortem diagnosis of milk aspiration is a challenge for clinician and pathologist. In case of sudden unexpected infant death from milk aspiration a broad diagnostic approach is necessary for an identification of the cause of death. Postmortem computed tomography is a very valuable aid in cases of forensic interest, as it can provide useful information in all those situations in which the cause of death is uncertain or there are no suggestive dynamics or lesions.
