Sudden infant death syndrome, or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as cot death, is the sudden death of a baby aged between one month and one year. The SIDS definition, which does not correspond to a specific pathology, is applied when all other causes known to explain the death of the newborn are excluded, from malformations to malicious events.
However, behaviors and risk factors have been identified that can significantly affect the probability of sudden death occurring. The actions capable of significantly reducing the incidence of SIDS can be found on the institutional portal of the Ministry of Health and the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and are disseminated by the provincial company for health services as part of the birth process, the accompaniment to parenthood, as well as in the discharge letter that is given to mothers after the birth.
At a national level, in order to improve knowledge of these forms of sudden death and prevent their onset, law 31/2006 was adopted, which provides that infants within one year of life and fetuses after the twenty-fifth week of gestation, who died without apparent cause are subjected to diagnostic tests to be carried out in authorized centres. The regulation provides that the Regions and autonomous Provinces must identify, in their territory, the structures that perform the function of reference centers for the diagnostic testing of infants and fetuses who have died without apparent cause.
In March 2012, the provincial executive had identified the “Lino Rossi” research center of the University of Milan as a reference, since it had been assessed that there were no scientific centers in Trentino equipped with the requirements required by law. Subsequently, the draft agreement with the Santi Paolo e Carlo territorial health and social care company in Milan was approved, with the aim of bringing the APSS to a progressive autonomy of the professionals involved in this diagnosis. With today’s resolution, the pathological anatomy unit of Santa Chiara has been identified as the provincial reference centre, as it possesses the requirements set by the Ministry of Health.
