Autopsy commissions swamp universities

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Twenty-one universities carried out more than 100 forensic autopsies each in 2009 under the commission of police authorities, with the workload stretching many institutions to the breaking point, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

Ten universities reported a single doctor having performed more than 100 autopsies last year. At Akita University in Akita, one doctor performed 284 autopsies.

The survey results suggest the current autopsy system, which depends heavily on universities' resources, is close to exhaustion.

Police are under increasing pressure to ensure cause of death is accurately determined so that crimes do not go uninvestigated, but this does not necessarily correspond with universities' primary mission of education and research. Forensic autopsies are ordered in cases of unnatural death, but not for deaths caused by disease or senility.

Forensic autopsies are carried out by universities in all municipalities except Tokyo's 23 wards, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe, where medical examiners are employed by the local governments. Fewer doctors are being trained in autopsy procedures, but the number of forensic autopsies ordered is increasing year by year.

Seventy-nine universities with forensic medicine departments were contacted in the survey, with 60 universities giving valid responses.

Fifty universities revealed the number of autopsies they conducted in 2009. At those institutions, a total of 5,593 forensic autopsies were performed last year.

Of 21 universities that performed more than 100 autopsies, seven--including Kyo-rin University, Akita University, Tohoku University, Osaka University and Okayama University--conducted more than 200 autopsies.

This year, 2,243 forensic autopsies had been performed by the end of April, meaning the total for the year is on track to outstrip that of 2009.

Forty-four universities supplied answers about forensic autopsies conducted since 2004. The combined total for those 44 institutions rose from 4,343 in 2004 to 5,235 in 2009, the survey found.

During that period, the number of doctors trained in autopsy procedures at the 44 universities decreased by one to 74, and the number of full-time staffers who assist with such tasks as toxicology tests and paperwork decreased from 203 to 192.

Akita University employed three doctors trained in autopsy procedures in 2004, but only one in 2009. In the same period, the number of autopsies performed at the university more than doubled, from 126 to 284.