Abstract: Objective To explore the causes and characteristics of medical disputes caused by death after cardiac surgery and to analyze the pathological changes after cardiac surgery and the key points of forensic anatomy, thus to provide pathological evidence for clinical diagnosis and treatment of cardiac surgery and judicial appraisal as well as reference for the prevention of medical disputes in such cases. Methods Forensic pathological cases of medical disputes caused by death after cardiac surgery which were accepted by the Center for Medicolegal Expertise of Sun Yat-Sen University from 2013 to 2018 were analyzed retrospectively from aspects such as causes of death, pathological diagnosis, surgery condition, medical misconduct, and so on. Results The causes of death after cardiac surgery of 43 patients were abnormal operation, low cardiac output syndrome, postoperative infection, postoperative thrombosis, and other diseases. Among the 43 cases, there were 18 cases without medical fault while 25 cases had medical fault. Conclusion The medical disputes caused by death after cardiac surgery are closely related to the operative technique and postoperative complications. The causes of medical faults include defects in diagnosis and treatment technique, as well as unfulfillment of duty of care.

Key words: forensic pathology, cardiac surgical procedures, death, medical disputes, cases analysis