Abstract
Background: An apparent life-threatening event (ALTE) is not a specific disorder. It is the sudden occurrence of certain alarming symptoms such as prolonged periods of no breathing (apnea), change in color or muscle tone, coughing, and gagging in children under 1 year of age. Method and materials: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in King Abdullah Specialized Children Hospital in Riyadh. The study included 46 infants out of 1660 ED admissions that met the criteria from Feb2016-Feb2018, 63% males and 37% females and the majority 76.1% were 1-3 months. Results: Our study found that half of cases reported idiopathic causes followed by gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) 19.6%, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) 10.9%. Also, we found that there was significant relation between causes ALTE and smoking in parents (p=0.04). Conclusion: The study concluded that the most common causes of ALTEs were unknown.