Abstract
Hospital autopsy rates have been declining worldwide. There is limited data on the rate of decline of autopsies in Australian hospitals. We studied the autopsy rates in Royal North Shore Hospital, a major Australian teaching hospital, over the last 47 years (1963–2009). Autopsy rates (defined as the percentage of in-hospital deaths which culminated in non-coronial autopsy) have steadily declined from 45% in the 1970s to 21% in the 1980s, 9% in the 1990s and 3% in the decade 2000 to 2009. The absolute autopsy numbers reached a peak in 1979 at 389 autopsies and decreased to 30 in 2009. Although the number of adult autopsies has declined, the number of perinatal autopsies performed has remained stable over the past 40 years. They now constitute 40% of all autopsies. Over the past 10 years 20% of autopsies were limited and 10% of brains were retained for further examination. Our data demonstrate that hospital autopsy rates have declined dramatically in Australia.
Published Version
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