Postmortem Gone Astray—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Premortem clinical diagnoses and postmortem autopsy findings do not match historically. These clinicopathological discrepancies are expected to be higher during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic due to increased pressure on healthcare. At the same time, autopsies and clinicopathological discrepancies accurately display the quality of the healthcare system. To assess that, we examined the relevant works of literature according to the PRISMA-based protocol. As a discrepancy rate change-related antemortem scrutiny of medical care in the hospital, we also checked whether studies with patients from the intensive care unit (ICU) differed in discrepancies significantly. We found similar overall risk differences in “pre-COVID” and “during the pandemic” groups of studies. Based on this, we concluded that healthcare quality did not drop significantly during the pandemic. Be that as it may, the pandemic exposed some shortcomings in mortem healthcare regarding consensus to the autopsy, organ retention, burial, and the postponed burial or the digitalization of postmortem healthcare. All of these issues should be addressed in the future.

Keywords

• autopsy
• discrepancy
• postmortem healthcare