[Suddenly dead infants].

The hospital management of infants who died suddenly has been facilitated in France by the ministerial note of 14 march 1986 which has made possible the development of the research in this field, with a multidisciplinary collaboration system co-ordinated by reference centers. The necropsic findings are variable, but in one out of three cases they establish a correlation between the lesions observed and the infant's death. Inflammatory lesions of the lung caused by infection, and aspiration of products from the digestive tract are particularly frequent.