Abstract: Objective To explore the cause of mistakes in medical tangles involving patient’s death, and to analyze its key points in judicial appraisal. Methods Total 24 cases involving patient’s death and multiple identifications were respectively analyzed and summarized based on common situations, distribution of departments, degree of responsibility and mistake analysis. Results It was showed that those medical tangles mostly originated from technical aspects, such as neglecting of latent symptoms, oversimplified management in clinical reception, poor cooperation between departments, and hesitation in confronting unexpected emergencies. In addition, some institutional mistakes, such as the performance of disclosure duty, opportunity of referral course, and deficiency of basal medical equipments, were the other aspects that caused these medical tangles. Conclusion The results mentioned above could provide some clues for the judicial appraisal of the similar medical tangles, and be helpful for avoiding their occurrence in future.

Key words: forensic pathology, expert testimony, cases analysis, medical tangle