Citation

Morley SR, Becker J, Al-Adnani M, Cohen MC. Am. J. Forensic Med. Pathol. 2012; 33(4): 390-394.

Affiliation

From the *Department of Clinical Chemistry, Sheffield Teaching Hospital; and †Department of Histopathology, Sheffield Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PAF.0b013e318252cfb1

PMID

22835964

Abstract

AIM: The study aimed to identify the incidence, clinical presentation, and demographic features of drug- and alcohol-related deaths diagnosed at a pediatric pathology department between 2004 and 2010. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Databases of the histopathology and toxicology departments were searched. Three groups were defined as follows: (1) cause of death is toxicologically related; (2) drugs present are consistent with therapeutic range use; and (3) a drug was detected, but the contribution of this drug to the mechanism of death was not clear. RESULTS: Fifty-five cases (36 males, 19 females; mean, 4.8 years; range, 2 hours to 17 years) were identified. This corresponded to 3.3% (55/1669) of all postmortems. Ten cases were group 1, 42 cases were group 2, and 3 cases were group 3. The results in group 1 were methadone (n = 2); methadone, alcohol, and dothiepin (n = 1); diazepam (n = 1); dothiepin (n = 1); carbon monoxide (n = 2); tramadol (n = 1); codeine and paracetamol (n = 1); and dihydrocodeine, citalopram, amitriptyline, and paracetamol (n = 1). The types of death were considered accidental (n = 2), suicide (n = 2), and undetermined (n = 6). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of a toxin in lethal concentration was found in 10 (0.6%) of 1669 of any kind of postmortem examinations. This increased to 2.2% when the analysis was restricted to "sudden deaths." These results demonstrate the need to conduct toxicological screening in all postmortems of this sort.

Language: en