Paediatric Review Category Definitions
Category | Name & description of category |
1 | Deliberately inflicted injury, abuse or neglect
This includes suffocation, shaking injury, knifing, shooting, poisoning & other means of probable or definite homicide; also deaths from war, terrorism or other mass violence; includes severe neglect leading to death. |
2 | Suicide or deliberate self-inflicted harm
This includes hanging, shooting, self-poisoning with paracetamol, death by self-asphyxia, from solvent inhalation, alcohol or drug abuse, or other form of self-harm. It will usually apply to adolescents rather than younger children. |
3 | Trauma and other external factors
This includes isolated head injury, other or multiple trauma, burn injury, drowning, unintentional self-poisoning in pre-school children, anaphylaxis & other extrinsic factors. Excludes Deliberately inflected injury, abuse or neglect. (category 1). |
4 | Malignancy
Solid tumours, leukaemias & lymphomas, and malignant proliferative conditions such as histiocytosis, even if the final event leading to death was infection, haemorrhage etc. |
5 | Acute medical or surgical condition
For example, Kawasaki disease, acute nephritis, intestinal volvulus, diabetic ketoacidosis, acute asthma, intussusception, appendicitis; sudden unexpected deaths with epilepsy. |
6 | Chronic medical condition
For example, Crohn’s disease, liver disease, immune deficiencies, even if the final event leading to death was infection, haemorrhage etc. Includes cerebral palsy with clear post-perinatal cause. |
7 | Chromosomal, genetic and congenital anomalies
Trisomies, other chromosomal disorders, single gene defects, neurodegenerative disease,cystic fibrosis, and other congenital anomalies including cardiac. |
8 | Perinatal/neonatal event
Death ultimately related to perinatal events, eg sequelae of prematurity, antepartum and intrapartum anoxia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, post-haemorrhagic hydrocephalus, irrespective of age at death. It includes cerebral palsy without evidence of cause, and includes congenital or early-onset bacterial infection (onset in the first postnatal week). |
9 | Infection
Any primary infection (ie, not a complication of one of the above categories), arising after the first postnatal week, or after discharge of a preterm baby. This would include septicaemia, pneumonia, meningitis, HIV infection etc. |
10 | Sudden unexpected, unexplained death
Where the pathological diagnosis is either ‘SIDS’ or ‘unascertained’, at any age. Excludes Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (category 5). |