De Subitaneis Mortibus

Necropsy studies of sudden death should always include examination of the conduction system of the heart but seldom do. This case is an example of sudden unexpected death in which there was a fibroma compressing the His bundle. Almost by definition it will be necessary to reconstruct probable clinical events retrospectively in such cases and several such considerations are made here. By studying individual examples and appropriate groups of cases in this way, it should be possible to reduce the number of "unexplained" cases, to formulate reasonable hypotheses for prospective examination, and ultimately to devise means of preventing some of these deaths.