needle autopsy

PATHOLOGY

Definition A popular term for a limited, minimally invasive postmortem examination consisting of multiple passes–generally without guidance by endoscopy or imaging–with a long biopsy needle to take tissue cores of the deceased, on which diagnoses are rendered without resorting to large incisions and complete “suiting up” as required for a conventional (“standard”) post-mortem examination.

Comment While they are far from perfect, needle autopsies can identify disease that had not been suspected clinically, and improve the accuracy of death certificates in situations in which families are reticent about consenting to a complete non-forensic autopsy.

Synonym Needle “biopsy” autopsy 

Reference Histopathology 2003; 42:417-23. 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22543521