The Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Abstract
Recent years have seen major advances in our understanding of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), including the discovery that the prone sleep position more than triples the risk of SIDS. This finding has led to a worldwide campaign advocating the supine sleep position for infants, which has been associated with a decrease of 50 to 90% in the SIDS rate. This review considers demographic and pathophysiological factors and current concepts about SIDS.