Abstract
Objective: To contribute to the construction of parameters of biosafety in order to protect government agents in the exercise of their investigative functions in the context of a pandemic, as well as to resolve clinical, pathological and possibly legal issues. Methodology: The development of an exploratory review study with a qualitative approach was defined. The methodological design was carried out on the platforms: PubMed and SciELO through the descriptors: Human identification, Radiology, Virtópsia and Autopsy. The exclusion criteria include articles with duplicate information or that do not have information related to the objectives of the study. For inclusion, materials published in Portuguese, English or Spanish were used and at the end 76 articles were obtained. Results and discussion: Conventional autopsy is the most common method for post-mortem investigation in humans. However, with the evolution of imaging methods and the current pandemic threatening the health of government agents, Virtópsia has shown itself to be the most promising way to remedy the dichotomy of occupational risk and legal benefit. Final considerations: In this article, the main advances in Forensic Radiology in the last 11 years were described, with regard to the use of ante and post mortem radiographs in the identification process. Among the various radiological techniques treated, the following stand out: radiographic techniques produced by radiology professionals with different assessments in the radiological area. The images produced are security methods with invasive manipulation and use of all PPE, suitable for the pandemic moment.
Highlights
In December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports an outbreak of pneumonia, for reasons initially unknown, in the city of Wuhan, capital of the province of Hubei-China
The macroscopic findings in suspected COVID-19 corpses vary in blocks of studies that are of interest to virtopsy
Taking into account that the inability to visualize certain pathologies in the virtual autopsy, where the comparability of the normal with the abnormal is essential for its verification, it can be suppressed by the artificial and mechanical return of the organ functioning (Curado et al, 2020)
Summary
In December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports an outbreak of pneumonia, for reasons initially unknown, in the city of Wuhan, capital of the province of Hubei-China. In view of the high number of deaths, governments do not have biosafety protocols for the proper management of cadavers for the purpose of identification, establishment of the underlying or contributory disease for death (Garrido & Almeida 2020; Jabal et al, 2021). Those killed by COVID-19 are not classified as violent death, as a rule they do not need to be referred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. Death Verification Services (SVO), triggered in cases where the attending physician was unable to declare the cause of death and, in an emergency manner, IMLs are being used (Finegan et al, 2020; Da Silva et al, 2020)
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