ABSTRACT It remains a challenge to obtain well‐preserved tissue samples from deceased patients as access to regular autopsy is limited. Minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) is a potential alternative to the complete diagnostic autopsy because of its efficacy in providing non‐autolyzed tissue samples and its increased acceptability amongst the bereaved. The study follows an exploratory, prospective design without any kind of intervention. Inclusion criteria are deceased adults (≥ 18 years), confirmed signs of death, uncertain or multifactorial cause of death, present or previous infection, and permission from next of kin to perform MIA, defined by ultrasound (US)‐guided samples from the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys using a TruCut semi‐automatic coaxial needle (14G; 16 cm length). Tissue samples, fixed in BiopSafe 20 mL formalin test tubes, are sent for pathological evaluation. The primary outcome is the achievement of well‐preserved tissue samples, representative of the target organ and suitable for histopathological evaluation and diagnosis. An exploratory outcome is to establish the degree of clinico‐pathological discrepancies between pre‐mortem clinical status and post‐mortem pathological descriptions. This investigator‐initiated study is designed to validate the feasibility of MIA to enable fast‐track post‐mortem evaluation in an ICU environment.
Helgesen et al. (Mon,) studied this question.