title: Necropsy rates in the United Birmingham Hospitals.
abstract: The necropsy rate in the United Birmingham Hospital has fallen from 74-4% in 1958 to 46-0% in 1972. In the Birmingham region as a whole the rate is 27-3%, approximately equal to the national rate. Most clinicians in the group who replied to a standard questionary considered that the necropsy still has an important part to play in their own practice and in undergraduate training, and they viewed the declining rate as a matter for concern. Some measure of disagreement was found between the ante-mortem and post-mortem diagnoses of patients in the two largest hospitals in the group. This suggests that the necropsy has a role to play in medical audit and that attempts to reverse the declining trend should be encouraged.
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000473:pathology