Virtopsy lends dignity to lazarus

Virtopsy lends dignity to lazarus 

Abstract Autopsy plays a significant role in Forensic pathology, which is a discipline of forensic science that deals with pathologic and physiologic changes of a body before and after death. An autopsy is an extremely specialized surgical procedure that consists of radical examination of the cadaver to work out the cause, manner of death, and to evaluate any disease or injury. The conventional autopsy procedures include examination of all body cavities and organs; but many cultures and religion do not believe in the idea of mutilating the body for the sake of autopsy. Therefore, autopsy has many emotional and ethical disadvantages. Also, with the conventional autopsy methods the 3D geometry of the body is destroyed along with an immense risk of infection to the mortuary staff and the concerned doctor. Thus, in order to ameliorate the conventional autopsy methods Michel Thali and Richard Dirnhofer developed a new method of autopsy known as “virtopsy” or “virtual autopsy”, which is a scalpel free procedure of autopsy carried out using modern medical, imaging and measuring technology. A combination of many disciplines like forensic medicine, pathology, radiology, image processing, physics and biomechanics lead to the technology called “Virtopsy”. It rests on certain pillars which include three dimensional surface scanning 3D/CAD, MSCT- multi slice CT and MRI and Magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Forensic odontologists play a pivotal role in human identification and with the advent of virtopsy dental identifications have become quick and accurate without damaging the head and neck region.

Keywords: Virtopsy, Identification.

Authors: Anil Singh, Shomaila Ahemd, Kunal Sah, Shweta Singh, Ayush Razdan Singh