Studies on the Causes of Sudden Death in the Aged

Iwasaki Tsutomu, Kuramoto Kizuku, Matsushita Satoru, Mifune Jun-ichiro, Sakai Makoto, Akahoshi Masazumi, Moroki Nobuto, Sugiura Masaya, Murakami Mototaka, Otsu Syoichi

doi:10.3143/geriatrics.18.19

In order to clarify the causes of sudden death (death within 6 hours after the acute episode), we studied the 1564 consecutive autopsies in the aged.<br>There were 250 cases (14.7% of total autopsied cases) of sudden death. They consisted of 119 males and 111 females. Sudden death from cardiovascular disease was found in 37.8%; cardiac death was 30.4%, and the death due to rupture of aortic aneurysm was 7.4%. Other cases of sudden death were asphyxia (20.8%), pneumonia (10.8%), cerebrovascular disease (6.5%), gastrointestinal disease (5.2%) and others. One hundred and sixteen were diagnosed acurately before death. The percentage of acurate diagnosis was highest in cases who died of gastrointestinal bleeding (83.3%) and the lowest in the cases of the rupture of the aortic aneurysm (35.3%). The major underlying diseases were cardiovascular disease (39.6%), pulmonary disease (22.6%), gastrointestinal disease (16%), cerebrovascular disease (13.5%) and others. Pulmonary diseases were the common underlying disease in cases of asphyxia. The cases, died less than five minutes from the onset of the acute episode, were observed in 56 cases. Of the 56 cases there were 25 cases of cardiovascular diseases and 15 cases of asphyxia.<br>There were 21 cases found after death; 7 of them died of asphyxia and 3 died of pneumonia.<br>It should be noticed that sudden death in the aged was observed in 14.7% and showed multiple causes, atypical or minimun symptomes.

Studies on the Causes of Sudden Death in the Aged

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