Medical and pathologic characteristics of fatal anaphylaxis: a Spanish nationwide 17-year series.

Forensic series on fatal anaphylaxis are scarce, probably because the diagnosis of anaphylaxis is often complex and the incidence is low. We report on the medicolegal, demographic and histopathological characteristics of a series of sudden deaths which were investigated for anaphylaxis at the Spanish National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (INTCF) over a 17-year period (1998-2015). A total of 122 undetermined sudden deaths from a high percentage of Spanish regions (81.

Clinical and demographic characteristics of fatal anaphylaxis in Spain (1998-2011): A comparison between a series from the hospital system and a national forensic series.

Background: Reports of fatal anaphylaxis remain scarce because of the rarity of the condition and the fact that information is limited to a few countries.

Objective: Our objective was to investigate clinical and demographic characteristics and the causes of fatal anaphylaxis in Spain using two databases of cases of fatal anaphylaxis.

Methods: We analysed fatal anaphylaxis in a series from the Spanish hospital system and a series from the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (Instituto Nacional de Toxicología y Ciencias Forenses [INTCF]), which predominantly comprise extrahospital deaths.