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Na, Kim, Kim, Lee, and Lee: Discrepancies in the Cause and Manner of Death Reported in Postmortem Inspection and Autopsy
Original Article

Korean J Leg Med 2016;40(4):119-124.

Published online: 19 December 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2016.40.4.119

Discrepancies in the Cause and Manner of Death Reported in Postmortem Inspection and Autopsy

Joo-Young Na1, Hyeong-Geon Kim1, Eun-Jeong Kim2, Seong-Jin Lee2, Bong-Woo Lee2

1Forensic Medicine Division, National Forensic Service Gwangju Institute, Gwangju, Korea

2Medical Examiner's Office, National Forensic Service, Jangseong, Korea

Correspondence to Joo-Young Na Forensic Medicine Division, National Forensic Service Gwangju Institute, 687 Chungnyeong-ro, Seosam-myeon, Jangseong 57231, Korea Tel: +82-61-393-8442 Fax: +82-61-393-8440 E-mail: pdrdream@gmail.com

Received 15 November 201621 November 2016       Accepted 24 November 2016

Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society for Legal Medicine

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Currently in the Republic of Korea, most postmortem investigations occur within the context of a death scene investigation and are restricted to a postmortem inspection without a subsequent autopsy. In this study, we analyzed the discrepancies between the results of postmortem inspection and autopsy to investigate the limits of postmortem inspection. The conclusions about the cause and manner of death stated in the two reports were compared. A retrospective study was carried out on 6,126 autopsy cases performed in the Republic of Korea in 2015. Of these autopsy cases, 2,263 included postmortem inspection reports. The stated cause and manner of death conflicted with the autopsy report in 55.1% and 32.9% of the postmortem inspection reports, respectively. Among these conflicted reports, the cause and manner of death was undetermined in 66.6% and 70.3% of the postmortem inspection reports, respectively. Furthermore, different types of discrepancies were found between the causes and manner of death that were stated in the reports by police investigators and those by forensic pathologists. This study revealed that postmortem inspection is not sufficient in the postmortem investigation and forensic autopsies need to be performed.

Keywords: Autopsy, Comparative study, Cause of death, Republic of Korea

REFERENCES

1.Jang JS., Jang SJ., Choi BH, et al. A statistical analysis of legal autopsies performed in Korea in 2014. Korean J Leg Med. 2015. 39:99–108.
crossref
2.Kim HG., Park JW., Cho WY, et al. The discrepancy of the cause and manner of death between death certificates and autopsy reports. Korean J Leg Med. 2014. 38:139–44.
crossref
3.Yang KM., Lee BW., Park JW, et al. The predictive ratios of intoxicated deaths by police's death scene investigation and doctor's death certificates in South Korea. Korean J Leg Med. 2016. 40:65–71.
crossref
4.Huh GY., Kim KH., Jo GR, et al. Differences in the determination of cause and manner of 127 natural death cases by postmortem inspection and autopsy. Korean J Leg Med. 2013. 37:9–13.
crossref

Table 1.
Autopsy report and postmortem inspection report data
Region Autopsy Postmortem inspection reporta) Submitted ratio (%)
Seoul 1,115 756 (561) 67.8
Busan 315 174 (173) 55.2
Incheon 420 137 32.6
Daegu 184 87 (72) 47.3
Gwangju 143 116 81.1
Daejeon 139 57 41.0
Gyeonggi-do 1,664 399 (8) 24.0
Gangwon-do 304 81 26.6
Chungcheongbuk-do 242 70 28.9
Chungchengnam-do 346 17 4.9
Jeollabuk-do 222 118 53.2
Jeollanam-do 355 221 62.3
Gyeongsangbuk-do 326 7 2.1
Gyeongsangnam-do 351 23 (16) 6.6
Total 6,126 2,263 36.9

Data of Ulsan and Jeju were not collected.

a) Numbers in parentheses indicate forensic pathologist report.

Table 2.
A classification of accordant and discordant CODs according to MOD
  Natural Unnatural Unknown Total
Accordant COD 69 (6.8) 756 (74.3) 192 (18.9) 1,017
Discordant COD 860 (69.0) 288 (23.1) 98 (7.9) 1,246

Values are presented as number (%). COD, cause of death; MOD, manner of death.

Table 3.
Discrepancies between postmortem inspection and autopsy reports concerning MOD
Type MOD on the postmortem inspection reports MOD on the autopsy reports Death scene investigator report (%) Forensic pathologist report (%) No. (%)
1 Natural Unnatural 59 (13.4) 13 (4.3) 72 (9.7)
2 Unnatural Natural 34 (7.7) 13 (4.3) 47 (6.3)
3-1 Unknown Natural 178 (40.5) 185 (60.7) 363 (48.7)
3-2 Unknown Unnatural 106 (24.1) 55 (18.0) 161 (21.6)
4-1 Natural Unknown 32 (7.3) 25 (8.2) 57 (7.7)
4-2 Unnatural Unknown 31 (7.0) 14 (4.6) 45 (6.0)
Total     440 (100) 305 (100) 745 (100)

MOD, manner of death.

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