Sampling and conditioning of specimens aimed at anatomical pathology during forensic autopsies: an improved systematisation

Abstract

Whilst all the legal medicine manuals and all the recommendations in terms of the synchronisation of practices
state that anatomical pathology examinations, and more precisely histological examinations, are indispensable to
the completion of the macroscopic autopsical examination, none of these documents really indicate the protocol
for the sampling and conditioning of specimens.
However, the quality of this examination, and by extension the final report of the autopsy, greatly depend on
these specimens. Thus, the forensic scientist must have a rudimentary grounding in the anatomical pathology
examination and develop it using documents that outline it, in order to improve the quality of the indispensable
collaboration between these two complimentary disciplines.
Objective: Propose a sampling protocol of both the different organs to be carried out during a forensic autopsy
and the specimens intended for the anatomical pathology examination, which meets the recommendations relating
to the synchronisation of the rules concerning forensic autopsy and to the different “guidelines” elaborated by the
scientific societies concerned, and to explain their conditioning.