[Problems in the documentation of autopsy findings on death certificates for stillborn babies and deaths of babies under one year of age].

Abstract

Analysis of 311 death certificates issued on stillbirths and deaths below one year of age, between 1979 and 1984, together with checks on all clinical data in them revealed a great number of erroneous entries by pathologists. These included using of wrong printed lines, reference to wrong ICD classes, disagreement between verbal notes and ICD code, statement of unimportant changes as causes of death, and mistakes in defining basic diseases. Error rates are reported and discussed. Pathologists quite often failed to take sufficient advantage of the possibility of stating a multicausative background of death.