Autopsy Practice, Potential Sources of Occupational Hazards: A Review for Safety and Prevention

The mortuary can be a dangerous place. At greatest risk in this environment is the individual who is ignorant of or ignores the potential hazards at necropsy. Such people are a liability to themselves as also to colleagues working in the mortuary, visitors to the mortuary (clinical staff and students), and those involved in handling the body (relatives, undertakers, embalmers and crematoria staff), or material derived from it (laboratory workers) after necropsy. The hazard posed by some material or situation is its potential to cause harm. Risk is the probability or chance that it will actually harm someone. In India, both the mortuaries and their safety norms are lagging behind the expected international standards. The autopsy surgeons are prone to a myriad of occupational risks in the form of contagious diseases which may be due to the faulty mortuary infrastructure like drainage systems, ventilation and biomedical waste disposal. Added to these are the lackadaisical administrative approach and the pathetic implementation of mandatory safety guidelines. This review article focuses on commonly encountered occupational risk in autopsy practice and guidelines to minimize them.