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Article History

Received: 9 November 2018

Accepted: 12 April 2019

First Online: 20 May 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Specimens aged between GW11 and GW12 used in this study were obtained immediately after legally permitted abortion procedures according to the Austrian law (§97StGB of the Austrian Criminal Law as promulgated on 13th November 1998, Federal Law Gazette I). Cadaver donations to the Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy of the Medical University of Innsbruck for scientific and educational purposes occur only with the informed consent of the donor collected before death. The donors declare during their lifetime that their dead bodies are to be consigned to the anatomical institute for research purposes and the education and advanced training of medical doctors. All embryological body and tissue donations (between the gestational ages 8 to 12) are also released to the anatomical institute by the legally entitled person (mother) accompanied by written consent. In Austria, research projects using these anatomical tissue samples do not need any further approval by an ethics committee of the University.The other samples (GW14 and older) are from the filing system of the Institute of Pathology of the Medical University of Innsbruck. For the usage of these specimens, an ethical commission vote was obtained before commencing this research. This study was approved by the Ethical Commission of the Medical University of Innsbruck (Studienzahl UN2817 Sitzungsnummer 249/4.5 Original Title of the research proposal: Immunhistochemische Untersuchung von Felsenbeinen mit dazugehöriger Hörbahn). In Austria, there is no requirement for a consent of the parents or relatives for a clinical autopsy performed in a medical institution § 25 KAKuG Leichenöffnung (Obduktion) (Krankenanstalten- und Kuranstaltengesetz). [(1) The corpses of deceased patients in public hospitals are to be autopsied if the autopsy has been ordered by sanitary or criminal prosecutors, or if it is necessary for public or scientific interests, in the situation of diagnostic uncertainty of the case or after surgical intervention.(2) If none of the cases mentioned in paragraph 1 is present and the deceased has not consented to an autopsy during his lifetime, an autopsy may only be carried out with the consent of the next of kin.(3) A copy of the medical history shall be recorded for each autopsy and kept in accordance with § 10, 1 Z. 3)In the past, § 25 KAKuG was labeled as § 25 KAG (Krankenanstaltengesetz).] .However, in specific cases, a limited autopsy or a postmortem biopsy of one or two organs with closed body is performed in lieu of a full autopsy. In Austria, this autopsy procedure allows institutions to keep the autopsy rate to a higher level than the level of other Western countries permitting high standards of quality assurance and quality controls in most of the healthcare institutions [CitationRef removed].

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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