[Sudden death. Cardiac and noncardiac causes]

The present review systematically reports the literature on a phenomenon that is hard to understand not so much in terms of pathological anatomy as in its physiopathological aspects: sudden death. An analysis is presented of the various cardiac and non-cardiac causes that can create the electrical instability of the heart that will end in sudden death. The anatomopathological need for careful study of the structures responsible for the creation of the electrical impulse and its conduction inside the heart is also emphasised.