Despite the well-known trend of decreasing autopsy rates in the western world we believe that the postmortem examination is a most valuable diagnostic tool in the setting of a university cardiac surgery unit. Our results confirm the importance of autopsies for all patients who die after the operation, because a significant part of autopsies reveals major discrepancies between clinical and postmortem diagnoses. In an effort to maintain a high quality of treatment and education the autopsy rate of a hospital is of utmost interest.
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