[The causes of perinatal death in the health institutions of Mexico City].

We determined the main causes of death in 798 perinatal deaths which took place among 32,701 births at several health institutions in Mexico City during the summer of 1984, in accordance with the Wigglesworth Classification. We evaluated the concordance among the codifiers of the causes, with a 92% result (P less than 0.0001). The main causes of death were: conditions associated to asphyxia and prematurity in all health institutions (public assistance, social security and private hospitals). The distribution according to birth weight showed that, in almost 50% of the deaths due to asphyxiation, the child's birth weight was greater than 2,500 g, which suggests that their were deficiencies in the medical attention given to those children.