Decomposed bodies--still an unrewarding autopsy?

One of the classic mistakes in forensic pathology is to regard the autopsy of decomposed body as unrewarding. The present study was undertaken with a view to debunk this myth and to determine the characteristic pattern in decomposed bodies brought for medicolegal autopsy. From a total of 4997 medicolegal deaths reported at an Apex Medical Centre, Yeotmal, a rural district of Maharashtra over seven year study period, only 180 cases were decomposed, representing 3.