ZUR BEDEUTUNG DER AUTOPSIE FUR DIE QUALITATSSICHERUNG IN DER MEDIZIN AUS DER SICHT DES KLINIKERS

Post-mortem conferences between pathologists and clinicians after every case with a fatal outcome in a university hospital would represent a final opportunity for an epicritical assessment of the course of the disease. A high autopsy rate is intolerable for a high standard of clinical medicine. The various basic requirements for proper assessment of clinical and pathological data as seen from the point of view of the clinician are outlined. Evaluation of the quality of clinical diagnosis on the basis of pathological and anatomical grounds alone is only permissible within limits. An analysis of fatal cases occurring at the Freiburg University Clinic in 1976 and 1977 illustrates the paper.