AbstractThe outset of the year 2020 witnessed the outbreak of an eipidemic known as CoVid-19 or novel coronavirus pandemic. Since then, the number of confrmed
cases of this infection had increased rapidly all over the world. Autopsy provides relevant knowledge about the identifcation and determination of the cause of death in
forensic medicine. Different non-invasive and minimally invasive approaches over the
traditional autopsy are introduced into forensic science to deal with challenges presented by COVID-19 pandemic where performing invasive autopsy is not feasible.
Virtopsy is a multi-disciplinary science. ‘Virtopsy’ or Virtual Autopsy aims at new
imaging techniques in forensic pathology to facilitate the present postmortem examination. It offers advantages over invasive ‘body openinging’ autopsy. Virtopsy consists of body volume documentation, optical scanning with imaging techniques such
as Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scan coupled
with minimally invasive approaches such as postmortem biopsies. Te importance of
Virtopsy is noteworthy in post mortem examination of COVID-19 patients. Virtopsy
has a broad spectrum of uses in forensic medicine, forensic odontology, frearm injury
and road trafc injury etc. Hence, it can be used either independently or as an alternative to conventional autopsy. Te present study highlights the importance of Virtopsy
in postmortem examination and its contribution in forensic science. It also provides
scope for future research in the subdisciplines of forensic science