Surveillance of injury-related deaths: medicolegal autopsy rates and trends in Finland

• DOI: 10.1136/ip.2006.012922
• Publication Date: 2007-08-08T15:33:21Z
• Authors: Philippe Lunetta; Anne Lounamaa; Sanna Sihvonen
• Keywords: Male; Data Collection; Forensic Medicine; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Cause of Death; Humans; Wounds and Injuries; Female; Autopsy; Coroners and Medical Examiners; Finland

Medicolegal autopsies are a vital tool for obtaining reliable injury mortality data. In Finland, medicolegal autopsies have increased from 13.6% of all deaths in 1970 to 23.8% in 2004. In fact, medicolegal autopsies are performed in 87.2% of all unintentional injury deaths, 98.3% of homicides and 99.5% of suicides. Finland has exceedingly high medicolegal autopsy rates compared with other countries. Autopsy rates should be appropriately considered when performing international comparisons of injury-related deaths.