Is it COVID-19? The value of medicolegal autopsies during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: We describe the experience of a busy metropolitan medical examiner's office in the United States and share our navigation of the COVID-19 autopsy decision-making process. We describe key gross and microscopic findings that, with appropriate laboratory testing, should direct a pathologist towards a COVID-19-related cause of death.

Material And Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 258 suspected and/or confirmed COVID-19 associated deaths that occurred between March 5, 2020, and March 4, 2021.