Abstract
In this feasibility study, we carried out in an interdisciplinary team standardised, ultrasound-guided, minimally invasive autopsy (US-MIA) directly at the bedside of patients who died of COVID-19 in the intensive care unit of the Rechts der Isar Hospital of the Technical University Munich (TUM). The aim of the study was to verify the feasibility, time efficiency and infection hygiene aspects of the process, as well as the quality of the tissue samples. Our results show that bedside US-MIA is suitable for obtaining tissue samples before the onset of postmortem autolysis, and that it can also be carried out quickly and safely. The potential of US-MIA, which has gained little recognition so far, deserves special attention in the context of postmortem diagnosis, research and quality assurance. In the future, these strengths of US-MIA could help to lead postmortem diagnosis into the modern age of pathological deep analytics ("omics").