![]() ![]() Although many clinicians still recognize the importance and benefits of autopsies, in practice they find it difficult to request consent for autopsy, and often do not ask for it. Moreover, there seems to be a declining interest in autopsies among both clinicians and pathologists. The reluctance of next-of-kin to consent to autopsy, for example due to fear of mutilation of the body or concerns about organ retention of their loved ones, may be one explanation for low autopsy rates. Particularly in developed countries, with traditionally high autopsy rates, where financial and technical resources are available.įor a clinical autopsy, consent from next-of-kin is compulsory in most countries. Although the clinical autopsy thus remains an important health care quality control measure, the last 30–40 years have witnessed a worldwide decline of clinical autopsies. ![]() ![]() Despite the use of advanced diagnostic technologies in modern medicine, autopsies still reveal major diagnostic errors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.Īutopsies on in-hospital deceased patients are performed to confirm, revise or identify the cause of death and relevant pathology, in order to provide clinicians with appropriate feedback on diagnosis and treatment. Data are also available from the Erasmus University Medical Center Institutional Data Access / Radiology Research Office for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.įunding: This study was made possible by grants from the Erasmus MC Health Care Efficiency / Cost-Effectiveness Research, (project number 2010-10112), Stichting Coolsingel Rotterdam, (project number 255), and Erasmus MC Vriendenfonds, (project number 104117). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Received: ApAccepted: SeptemPublished: October 13, 2016Ĭopyright: © 2016 Blokker et al. PLoS ONE 11(10):Įditor: Gavin Daker-White, University of Manchester, UNITED KINGDOM Consent for an autopsy at Yale includes diagnostic, education, quality improvement, and research.Citation: Blokker BM, Weustink AC, Hunink MGM, Oosterhuis JW (2016) Autopsy of Adult Patients Deceased in an Academic Hospital: Considerations of Doctors and Next-of-Kin in the Consent Process. There are many reasons why families choose to pursue having an autopsy done. What we learn from autopsies allows clinicians to better understand disease processes, accurately diagnose diseases, improve therapy, and potentially aid other patients who are currently suffering from a similar disease. All other manners of death are referred to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) for further investigation.Īutopsies continually advance our understanding of disease. Only deaths due to natural causes are examined at Yale New Haven Hospital. ![]() Connecticut recognizes the following manners of death: natural, accident, homicide, suicide, and unknown. The manner of death is the circumstances surrounding the death. The cause of death is the medical reason explaining why a patient passed. An autopsy, also known as a post-mortem examination, is a specialized surgical procedure used to determine the cause and manner of death. ![]()
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