title: "Mors auxilium vitae"--causes of death of body donors in an Austrian anatomical department.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anatomical dissection is, despite several critical annotations, a highly valuable component of under- and postgraduate medical education and research. Our current causes-of-death statistics on our body donors is aimed to find out to which extent they are representative of the Austrian population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated the causes of death stated in their death certificates of a total of 3399 people who donated their bodies to our department in the course of the last 25 years (1988-2013). The categorisation is based on the official ICD-10-WHO classification.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our data show a prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in about half of the donors (42%) examined; no gender difference could be revealed in cardiovascular diseases. Tumours were responsible for about 20% of deaths, lead by lung cancer; cancers showed a slight male excess. All other deaths were caused by diseases of the respiratory system, the digestive organs, the genitourinary system, the nervous system, alimentary and metabolic disorders, infections and blood diseases, psychiatric disorders, external and other causes in descending order. Compared to the official Austrian and German statistics, there are only minor deviations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data clearly show that body donors, at least in our department, depict a representative sample of Austrian population in terms of their causes of death. Therefore anatomical dissection provides appropriate insight into the morbidity of the increasing major target population of medicine, the elders. Limitations in the acceptance by age, excluding either young or old donors, which appear to exist in other anatomical departments, will limit this representativeness. Being aware of these facts, the anatomical dissection course cannot only provide anatomical learning experiences but can also provide an introduction to the basics of epidemiology. Therefore, a topographical dissection course remains an indispensable method for both undergraduate and postgraduate training as well as for research.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria. Electronic address: marko.konschake@i-med.ac.at.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Konschake
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brenner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000715:Anatomy / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001317:Austria; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003644:Death Certificates; D004210:Dissection / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body shapes; Causes-of-death statistics; Clinical anatomist; Dissection course; Tumour diseases