We feel that such a lack of understanding (unfortunately, not uncommon among physicians) contributes to the already declining
autopsy rate and does a disservice to our clinicians, students, patients, and their families.
Jazan had a 100-percent
autopsy rate, while Riyadh had an almost 84-percent rate of forensic examination.
In Manitoba, the
autopsy rate was considerably higher, at 10.5%, although comparisons for the pediatric population are not available.
One of the difficulties is that the
autopsy rate after stillbirth is low, understandably so at such a distressing time.
In Massachusetts General Hospital the
autopsy rate for the first five decades of the previous century varied between 20% and 40% of patients who died in the hospital.
Baker et al (5) reported a mean
autopsy rate of 12.7% in 418 US and Canadian institutions in 1989, with nearly two-thirds of centres having an
autopsy rate of between 0 and 10%.
"The
autopsy rate in the United States is vanishingly small," he said.
Decreasing
autopsy rate in Sweden reflects changing attitudes among clinicians.
By the end of the first year, the program had accomplished its goal of reaching an
autopsy rate of 30%, which has remained constant throughout the life of the program.
In many European countries, the
autopsy rate in such cases stands at more than 70 percent.
Back in the days of low-tech medicine (i.e., the 1960s), the percentage of autopsies on patients dying in our university teaching hospitals was about 50 percent--and the
autopsy rate was an important factor used by accrediting bodies in rating the overall quality of medical care in hospitals.
The overall
autopsy rate in this study was 16%, which is lower than the national rate of 25% in England and Wales for all deaths [2], but is comparable with the 19% obtained in elderly subjects (75 years and over) in the South Lothian district of Scotland [8].