Comparative study on the underlying cause and mode of death established prior to and after medicolegal autopsy.

A comparative study was made on the underlying cause and mode of death determined in 600 consecutive cases by forensic physicians before and after medicolegal autopsy. All available information including police records, medical documents of decedents and the results of the external medicolegal examination of the corpse were utilized to determine the cause and mode of death before autopsy. The mode of death would have been defined erroneously in 10% of cases and the underlying cause of death in 29.5% of cases if medicolegal autopsy had not been performed. The present results are consistent with previous studies which indicate that the determination of the underlying cause of death is significantly more accurate when an autopsy is performed. They also suggest that in a large number of routine medicolegal cases a similar trend, but at a lower rate, is associated with the determination of the mode of death.