Key result
Updated review yields a practical flowchart to guide forensic autopsy investigations of sudden death.
Why the study?
Sudden death in apparently healthy individuals poses a significant challenge for medical examiners, law enforcement, and society.
This review provides a practical flowchart to guide forensic pathologists in the autopsy investigation of sudden death, helping to determine the cause and potential heritability.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May standardize sudden death autopsies for forensic pathologists; leaves open prospective validation of diagnostic yield and heritability detection.
The medico-legal term "sudden death (SD)" refers to those deaths that are not preceded by significant symptoms. SD in apparently healthy individuals (newborn through to adults) represents a challenge for medical examiners, law enforcement officers, and society as a whole. This review aims to introduce a useful flowchart that should be applied in all cases of SD. Particularly, this flowchart mixes the data obtained through an up-to-date literature review and a revision of the latest version of guidelines for autopsy investigation of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in order to support medico-legal investigation. In light of this review, following the suggested flowchart step-by-step, the forensic pathologist will be able to apply all the indications of the scientific community to real cases. Moreover, it will be possible to answer all questions relative to SD, such as: death may be attributable to cardiac disease or to other causes, the nature of the cardiac disease (defining whether the mechanism was arrhythmic or mechanical), whether the condition causing SD may be inherited (with subsequent genetic counseling), the assumption of toxic or illicit drugs, traumas, and other unnatural causes.
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Sessa et al. (2021) conducted a review in Sudden death. Flowchart for autopsy investigation was evaluated. A practical flowchart based on an up-to-date literature review and guidelines was developed to guide forensic pathologists in the autopsy investigation of sudden death.
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