Source+1

Koponen, Mark A. "The Autopsy Report." //Medscape Reference Drugs, Diseases, and Procedures//. WebMD LLC., 1994-2012. Web. 30 May 2012. <[]>.

**__Facts:__**

 * To the family, the reason may simply be to find out the cause of the death**.**
 * The scalp is cut and separated from the underlying skull and pulled forward.
 * The reasons for performing hospital autopsy examinations are varied, ranging from simple to complex.
 * Examination of the chest, abdomen, and brain is probably considered by most pathologists as the standard autopsy, and one technique is briefly described below.
 * To the physicians, the reason may be to uncover the progression and interactions of multiple disease processes and the effects of therapy.
 * Thus, often the real labor involved in a modern autopsy examination begins and ends outside of the morgue.
 * The hospital autopsy pathologist is confronted with a wide variety of unique cases requiring specialized problem solving and autopsy procedures.
 * Various formats exist for autopsy reports
 * The autopsy examination culminates in the generation of an autopsy report
 * Ultimately, the autopsy examination provides a clinicopathologic correlation to be used by both the family and the patient's physicians.
 * the autopsy report is not only a written description of the autopsy findings but also assembles and correlates these findings with the clinical setting, laboratory results, and imaging studies
 * Reports may be exceedingly lengthy and detailed, as in a teaching institution, to an abbreviated and focused report, as is sometimes seen in community hospitals and medical examiners' offices.
 * A relatively standardized approach to assembling autopsy reports is seen largely as facilitating the review of reports by third parties and to facilitate data retrieval and analysis.
 * such recommendations are seen as a move to standardization of policies and procedures
 * Although these recommendations vary slightly, the general format provides for a series of standardized headings to logically report autopsy findings.