ABSTRACT
Sudden unexplained death (SUD) was defined by Jay and Leestma (1981) as “non-traumatic death occurring in an individual within minutes or hours of the onset of the final illness or ictus.” These patients are not previously known to be suffering from any illness that would normally be expected to cause sudden death, and no pathologic explanation for their death has been found. Up to a 13% incidence of SUD has been reported in persons with epilepsy, with the epileptic population most at risk for SUD being the young person with a mean age of 32 years (Jay and Leestma 1981; Krohn 1977). Many causes for SUD have been postulated, including autonomic dysfunction and its relation to epileptogenic discharge (Jay and Leestma 1981).
