Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: The main purpose of autopsy is to elicit information about the cause and mode of death of the deceased with unknown and or unnatural cause of death. Pathological examination also provides information about the asymptomatic or undiagnosed lesions. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the various such incidental discoveries of lesions that would normally go unnoticed during the person’s life. Materials and methods: The retrospective tertiary care hospital based study was conducted in the Department of Pathology. A total of 125 Autopsy viscera cases brought over the period of three years were included in the study. Cases in which cause of death could be established beyond any doubt without pathological examination like Burns, Hanging, Head Injury, Railway accident cases etc. were not subjected to Histo-pathological examination. Only the Viscera brought by police, adequately preserved in 10% formalin solution were examined. The results are expressed as percentage of total value. Results: Atherosclerosis was the most common finding on autopsy, occurring in almost 24.8% cases. Liver was the predominant organ that was examined histopathologically. Fatty liver was demonstrated in 22.4% cases. There were only 0.8% cases of pancreatitis and erosive gastritis in our study. Majority of the cases i.e. 49.6% (n=62) were between 21-40 years of age. Least number of cases was found in the age group of more than 80 years i.e. 2.4%. Conclusion: Atherosclerosis is the most common finding followed by fatty liver. Such studies give an insight about true prevalence of the disease.
Keywords: Atherosclerosis, autopsy, formalin, histo-pathological examination.

Corresponding author: Dr. Arun Puri, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, GMC Amritsar, India

This article may be cited as: Puri A, Garg P, Tayal I, Singh N, Joshi R. Uncommon and fluke pathological discoveries during examination of viscera in postmortem cases- A retrospective study. J Adv Med Dent Scie Res 2017;5(2):121-123.