Common errors in writing the cause of death certificate in the Middle East

Publication date: Available online 29 August 2019Source: Journal of Forensic and Legal MedicineAuthor(s): Mohammed Madadin, Aishah S. Alhuman, Naimah A. Bushulaybi, Assayl R. Alotaibi, Hala A. Aldakhil, Arwa Y. Alghamdi, Norah K. Al-Abdulwahab, Shahad Y. Assiri, Nesreen A. Alumair, Fai A. Almulhim, Ritesh G. MenezesAbstractA death certificate is an official document in which the medical practitioner primarily records the cause of death sequence, the time interval between the onset of the cause of death and death, and personal details of the deceased. Errors in death certificate documentation are not uncommon. We aim to review the common errors in writing the cause of death certificate in the Middle East. For this review, we searched the PubMed database using a comprehensive search strategy to identify studies from the Middle East that reported errors in the cause of death certification from inception to August 17, 2019. Of the 308 items initially identified, 5 were eligible for inclusion. These studies were reported from only a few countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon and Palestine) in the Middle East and did not represent all the countries geographically located in the Middle East. The Middle East is not immune to errors in the medical certification of the cause of death. Absence of cause of death, inappropriate listing and sequencing of the causes of death, mentioning the mechanism or mode of death instead of the cause of death, absence of time interval between the onset ...
Source: Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine - Category: Forensic Medicine Source Type: research