Hjorth L, Noer H, Rasmussen K S, Sørensen I M
Patologisk anatomisk institut, Hjørring/Brønderslev Sygehus.
Ugeskr Laeger. 1994 Aug 1;156(31):4459-61.
On the 1.7.1990 a new law was introduced in Denmark whereby specific consent had to be obtained from the deceased's relatives before autopsy could be performed. Autopsy records from two periods before and after this date, namely from 1.7.1980 to 1.7.1981 and from 1.7.1990 to 30.6.1991, are examined here with respect to autopsy rate and agreement/disagreement between clinical assessment as to cause of death and findings on autopsy. With an autopsy rate of 82.7% before and 10.3% after the new law we found that there was significantly more disagreement between the clinical assessment and the autopsy findings in the 1990/1991 period, presumably because of a selection bias towards difficult cases. The autopsy material from 1990/1991 could only be used for statistics in a limited fashion. A very low autopsy rate of about 10% implies that 25-30% of all death certificates from hospitals must be assumed to be incorrect as concerning serious diseases. The study shows that there is a considerable need for the performance of autopsies for the sake of medical statistics.
1990年7月1日，丹麦出台了一项新法律，规定在进行尸检之前必须获得死者亲属的明确同意。本文研究了该日期前后两个时期的尸检记录，即1980年7月1日至1981年7月1日以及1990年7月1日至1991年6月30日，内容涉及尸检率以及临床对死因的评估与尸检结果之间的一致/不一致情况。新法律实施前尸检率为82.7%，实施后为10.3%，我们发现1990/1991年期间临床评估与尸检结果之间的不一致明显更多，推测是由于对疑难病例存在选择偏倚。1990/1991年的尸检材料仅能有限地用于统计。约10%的极低尸检率意味着，就严重疾病而言，必须假定医院所有死亡证明中有25 - 30%是不正确的。该研究表明，为了医学统计，进行尸检有相当大的必要性。
