title: Fatal Complications after Pediatric Surgical Interventions: Lessons Learned.
abstract: Placement of catheters, drains, shunts, and tubes in children can lead to serious or even fatal complications at the moment of placement, such as hemorrhage at insertion, or in the longterm, such as infections and migration into adjacent organs. The clinician should always be aware of these potential complications, especially if the child is unwell. For postmortem diagnostic evaluation, either with a computed tomography scan or an invasive autopsy, all tubes, drains, shunts, and/or catheters should be left in situ. We present three cases with fatal complications after the placement of a chest drain, ventriculoperitoneal shunt, and gastrostomy tube.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Willemijn M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mayke E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Van der Putten
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Benno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kusters
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bas H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Verhoeven
keywords: chest drain; complications; feeding tube; unexpected death; ventriculoperitoneal shunt