[Deaths in preschool and school age--a retrospective analysis from a medicolegal point of view].

At the Department of Legal Medicine in Giessen all forensic autopsies from the years 1990 until 2001 were investigated under the aspect of "death in preschool and school age between 3 and 16 years of age." Out of 69 deaths 19% were due to a natural and 81% to an unnatural cause of death. Both groups (3 to 6 and 7 to 16 years of age) were analyzed retrospectively with regard to age and circumstances of death and compared with the literature.