The use of CT-scanning at the medicolegal external postmortem examination and at the forensic autopsy

Introduction: Can CT-scanning of deceased at the medico legal external examination improve the selection of cases to autopsy? Is CT-scanning a substitute or a supplement to the traditional forensic autopsy?

Material: In 2006 60 deceased individuals from Southern Denmark (counties of Fyn and Sønderjylland) (15 females and 45 males) were CT-scanned before autopsy.

Method: A double-blind prospective investigation of CT-scanning in autopsy cases. A multislice spiral CT-scanner (Siemens Somatom Spirit) was used. Data from the CT-scanning and the autopsy were registered in a computer database and compared.

Results: The scanning could be performed in 10 minutes per case. In approximately a third of the cases the cause of death could be established by CT-scanning alone. CT-scanning was found to be most useful in cases of traumatic death, and was superior to autopsy in visualizing fractures.

Conclusions: CT-scanning is not a substitute for autopsy, but can be used at the medico legal external examination to evaluate in which cases an autopsy is needed. It can also be used as a supplement to the autopsy in cases of traumatic death, and is especially useful in evaluation of injuries sustained in motor vehicle accidents and in gunshot injuries, and for identification purposes.