Virtopsy in Covid-19 and Its Application in Forensic Science: A Review

ABSTRACT

The outset of the year 2020 witnessed the outbreak of an epidemic known as CoVid-19 or novel coronavirus pandemic. Since then, the number of confirmed cases of this infection had increased rapidly all over the world. Autopsy provides relevant knowledge about the identification and determination of the cause of death in forensic medicine. Different non-invasive and minimally invasive approaches over the traditional autopsy are introduced into forensic science to deal with challenges presented by COVID-19 pandemic where performing invasive autopsy is not feasible. Virtopsy is a multi-disciplinary science. 'Virtopsy' or Virtual Autopsy aims at new imaging techniques in forensic pathology to facilitate the present postmortem examination. It offers advantages over invasive 'body opening' autopsy. Virtopsy consists of body volume documentation, optical scanning with imaging techniques such as Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scan coupled with minimally invasive approaches such as postmortem biopsies. The importance of Virtopsy is noteworthy in post mortem examination of COVID-19 patients. Virtopsy has a broad spectrum of uses in forensic medicine, forensic odontology, firearm injury and road traffic injury etc. Hence, it can be used either independently or as an alternative to conventional autopsy. The present study highlights the importance of Virtopsy in postmortem examination and its contribution in forensic science. It also provides scope for future research in the subdisciplines of forensic science. © 2021, Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. All rights reserved.