The autopsy in crisis

In the Western world the autopsy rate is declining at an alarming rate. In the United States of America the rate in some academic hospitals is less th an 7% of all hospital deaths. This decline has been documented and deplored in many countries, articles and books. Suggestions on how to resuscitate t he autopsy range from mandatory in all hospital deaths to economic bonuses to the doctors obtaining the highest autopsy rate. All in vain, the autopsy decline continues. Pathologists deploring this decline blamed clinical col leagues, new social attitudes, the litigious nature of modern society, but few have questioned a procedure little changed in more than a century. Perh aps the time has come to abandon the "classic" autopsy and rethink the proc edure so as to make it useful, alluring and indispensable for the contempor ary, concerned clinician.