The Virtual Autopsy

very year American dictionaries add new words that have become so common that they are considered mainstream. In the area of medicolegal death investigation, “virtopsy” is trending in that direction. Most of us who work in the areas of forensic medicine and forensic toxicology have heard of the virtual autopsy—an autopsy based more on imaging than physical examination—for which the alias virtopsy is sometimes used. Is the virtual autopsy likely to replace the traditional postmortem examination and eliminate the role of the forensic pathologist in the investigation of sudden, unexpected, violent, or suspicious deaths? The short answer is: not anytime soon. The use of radiographic imaging as an adjunct in death investigation is not new. It is nearly standard practice to take two-dimensional radiographic images of select cases in most medical examiner and coroner offices. In deaths from gunshot wounds, explosions, fire, and sharp force injuries, the bodies are routinely imaged for the presence of projectiles, shrapnel, or portions of weapons. Some offices frequently image deaths that involve motor vehicles, especially when a pedestrian is involved. And no suspicious or unexplained infant death is complete without the proverbial “babygram.”