External Postmortem Examination

An external postmortem examination is of significance in three different circumstances: death certification, as part of the autopsy, and for identification purposes. The most important, of course, is the external examination for death certification. In addition to the certification of death, the cause and manner of death have to be determined. The cause of death is of great importance for mortality statistics and epidemiology and the manner of death is important for legal security. According to the international guidelines of the World Health Organization, in the confidential part of the death certificate, the immediate cause of death and the underlying cause of death have to be indicated. To certify the cause of death, knowledge of the patient's history is of utmost importance. Certification of the cause and manner of death will be described in detail in this article and problem areas will be addressed.