Post mortem examination Flashcards
What medical questions can be answered using an autopsy?
- confirming diagnosis
- revealing a diagnosis
- explaining unexplainable findings
- investigating possible failings in medical care
What medico-legal questions can be answered on an autopsy?
Deaths that may involve:
- violence
- accidents
- unexplained
- occupation-related
- suicides
- deaths in custody
What steps does an autopsy involve?
- Background information (pmhx, summary of clinical events)
- external examination (general appearance)
- internal examination (systems)
- Further investigations (samples taken)
What information can be learned from the external examination
- height/weight/bmi
- scars
- drains
- IV lines
- trauma
- jaundice
- cyanosis
- clubbing
- oedema
- lymphadenopathy
etc.
How is internal examination carried out?
- Evisceration
- organ dissection
- macroscopic assessment
- microscopic assessment
What are the common vascular pathologies seen on autopsy
- Thrombosis and infarction (e.g. heart, gut, brain)
- Embolism
- haemorrhage
What are the outcomes of MI
- sudden death from arrhythmia or acute left ventricular failure
- cardiac rupture through weakened necrotic muscle
What is an embolism?
A mass of material that can move through the vascular system and is capable of blocking the lumen
Name common causes of emboli
- thrombus
- air
- fat
- amniotic fluid
Name common causes of haemorrhage
from rupture of blood vessel due to:
- under high pressure
- congenital weakness
- weakened by disease
- eroded into
Give an example of a haemorrhage as a result of a vessel under high pressure
cerebral haemorrhage in hypertension
Give an example of a haemorrhage as a result of a vessel weakened congenitally
subarachnoid haemorrhage from rupture of cerebral artery aneurysm (berry aneurysm)
- congenital weakness due to lack of elastic fibers
Give an example of a haemorrhage as a result of a vessel weakened by disease
Rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm due to severe atheroma in the abdominal aorta causing weakening of vessel
Give an example of a haemorrhage as a result of a vessel being eroded into
Bleeding from a duodenal ulcer
How does pneumonia spread in the body and how does this effect the lungs?
Through the blood rather than airways
- largely confined to one lobe
