Head of forensic medicine in Hanover: too few autopsies are carried out
The head of forensic medicine at Hanover Medical School believes the number of autopsies in Lower Saxony is too low. In general, too few autopsies are carried out and many remain undetected, Prof. Michael Klintschar told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "If we perform more autopsies, we will be able to track down undetected homicides." Forensic medicine is commissioned by the public prosecutor's office in cases where the cause of death is unclear, for example. He also suggested that 15 percent of the deceased in hospitals should be autopsied and toxicologically examined at random.
"We receive significantly more orders from some regions with similar population figures and deaths than from others," said the forensic pathologist. "Our forensic medicine department carries out around 1,000 autopsies a year; in total, we estimate that there are less than 2,000 autopsies in Lower Saxony for 100,000 deaths a year. That's only 2 percent."
However, Klintschar emphasized that he is not only concerned with murder cases. "We also need autopsies as quality control in medicine." This should be used, for example, to check how well a therapy is working. In the 19th century, doctors opened up many dead bodies and discovered and described new diseases in the process. According to him, significantly more corpses are examined in Finland and Austria, for example - something that used to be standard in Germany. Studies from other federal states have shown that every fourth death certificate is incorrect.
The lack of autopsies can hinder disease research, as many undetected health issues remain unexplored. Moreover, enhancing autopsy rates may provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of various medicines through post-mortem quality control.
Source: www.dpa.com
