Importance and guidelines of postmortem examination on COVID-19 cases: An overview

Abstract

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) occurred in December 2019, in Wuhan, China, the COVID-19 has spread to 216 countries, areas, and territories and killed more than 400,000 people worldwide. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The pathological findings of COVID-19 by postmortem biopsy were first reported in April 2020. Since then, there have been many publications regarding the postmortem pathological findings of different organs of COVID-19 patients. Well-performed systemic autopsy examination on patients with related diseases, acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus has provided critical information for better understanding the pathogenesis of the emerging infectious diseases in the past. An overview on the importance and guidelines of postmortem examination on suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients is presented.