Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal issues: Obscure autopsy

• Post mortem examination of a dead body is carried out to gain insight of anatomy and pathology of corpse and close examination of the injuries, marks of weapon or disease process and it’s significant for forensic application of medical knowledge. Whether it is a clinical/pathological or forensic, autopsy is nothing but medical study of a dead body and is carried out for enhancing clinical findings and its correlation with patient clinical manifestations during the treatment or understanding some unrevealed aspect of disease or diagnose the disease which has caused the mortality. These findings may be simultaneously used for  medico-legal purpose
• The procedure of both the autopsies is same;  autopsy conducted  by a forensic expert in cases of sudden/unexpected/unexplained death is nothing but a purely clinical autopsy
• When in a postmortem examination all efforts means macro/gross, microscopic chemical and toxicological result couldn’t  be concluding enough into cause ,manner or other required medico-legal aspect of death then the obscure or negative autopsy work for logical conclusion
• Negative autopsy is very useful in cases where there is no adequate history of death and death from fear/fright or shock/Cases of post fracture air embolism. Death due to lesion in neck as diphtheria, laryngeal bronchitis/swelling of glottis or chocking on food, Cases like brown atrophy of heart associated with starvation, asthma or cancer, Sickle cell disease/Lesion of adrenal gland/hemorrhage or destruction by tumor, The negative autopsy is also very informative seen by me in death due to distal coronary artery occlusion or coronary arteries spasm.
• The opinion expressed on the basis of a clinical autopsy is examined or cross examined in departmental/institutional peer review as the findings and opinion after a forensic autopsy has to withstand the acid test of cross examination by the defense lawyer/prosecutor and judges on circumstantial evidences available before honorable court both clinical and forensic autopsies have a complimentary role towards each other.