Sudskomedicinski aspekti smrti novorođenčadi i odojčadi

In this work medicolegal characteristics of newborn and infant deaths are presented. Records of medicolegal autopsies of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Belgrade were analyzed and compared for two periods 1989-1990 and 1998- 2000. The vital statistics data from the State Statistics Bureau of Serbia were also used in the research. Mortality rate of newborns and infants is decreasing in the analyzed periods but the percentage of the cases, which were subjected to medicolegal autopsies, and their ratio in overall autopsies has decreased disproportionately. Males dominate in both periods. Age ratio is similar in both periods with an equal distribution between infants and newborns. A half of the newborns in both periods have remained unidentified even after the autopsy. Medical institution as a place of death has increased while home, which dominates as a place of death in the first period, decreased. Natural deaths dominate in both periods with pneumonia as the principal cause in infants and amniotic fluid aspiration in the newborns. Violent deaths were mostly due to accidental traffic injuries. Questions that remain open are the cases that were erroneously not subjected to medicolegal autopsy, and cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) which were unreasonably classified in other categories.