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Comment
. 2003 Dec;7(6):407-8.
doi: 10.1186/cc2378. Epub 2003 Sep 26.

Autopsy in critical illness: is it obsolete?

Margaret S Herridge  1
Affiliations
Comment

Autopsy in critical illness: is it obsolete?

Margaret S Herridge. Crit Care. 2003 Dec.

Abstract

The autopsy continues to have important implications for patient management in critical illness. It is not obsolete. Autopsy data help us to track shifts in disease prevalence over time and to heighten surveillance for serious diagnoses that are commonly missed. These data help us to identify important contributors to death that may be remediated through quality assurance and control programs. In discrete patient subsets, information from autopsies may reinforce the degree of certainty surrounding end-of-life decision-making.

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