Abstract

VERDU PASCUAL, F.A.. Autopsy in medical malpractice. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2002, n.27, pp.5-10. ISSN 1988-611X.

After a brief reference to the importance of the practice of the clinical autopsy, the problem of the forensic autopsy in cases of malpractice is undertaken. These can be of very distinct nature and of the same form, the evidences that leave in the corpse are going to be also very various. A problem that can be determinant for the investigation, is the moment in which the autopsy is practiced, that can be previous or subsequent to the reclamation. Likewise, the state of the corpse goes to condition the results, spreading fundamentally to the state of conservation in which be found. Upon putting in relation the types of malpractice with the varieties of death that can be produced, is obvious that the simplest of detecting, are those in which the cause of the death has been an morfological alteration, therefore more persistent in the putrefacción, that the ones that owe to another type of causes. It is concluded that, for the correct investigation of the case, they should take advantage of all the available information, what includes, evidently, the clinical history and in case if there is practiced, the data that have been obtained of the clinical autopsy.

Keywords : professional responsibility; expert witness; clinical autopsy; forensic autopsy.

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