An autopsy, or post mortem, is the medical examination of a body and the internal organs after a person has died. There are two types of autopsy – a coroner's autopsy and a hospital autopsy.
This is called a 'coroner's post mortem' and is the most commonly performed type of post mortem. It is carried out under the authority of a local coroner to find out how someone has died. Coroners are usually lawyers or doctors with a minimum of five years' experience.
There are three levels of autopsy
Autopsies will usually include testing for any infections (microbiology), changes in body tissue and organs (anatomical histology), and chemicals, eg medication, drugs or poisons (toxicology and pharmacology).
There are two main types of autopsies: forensic and clinical. The first one is performed in case of suspicious, violent or unknown cause of death. The second is performed in the hospital, by the pathologist, based on the consent of the deceased's next of kin in order to find and better understand the causes of death.
The principal aims of an autopsy are to determine the cause of death, mode of death, manner of death, the state of health of the person before he or she died, and whether any medical diagnosis and treatment before death were appropriate.
Abstract. During the course of the daily practice of forensic pathology, little or no attention is generally devoted to the tongue (if it is even removed at all during the autopsy examination) except in a handful of relatively well-defined situations.
Background: A full autopsy at our institution includes removal of the eyes for pathologic examination. To our knowledge, the rate of ophthalmic findings at autopsy has not been documented previously.
1. Complete autopsy is defined to include a detailed external examination of the entire body, and an internal examination to include the removal and dissection of all thoraco-abdominal and neck organs, opening the head with the removal and examination of the brain. 2.1.
The autopsy process
To release the body to the family as soon as possible, the autopsy is usually performed the day following the death and almost always within three working days.
Most autopsies are performed soon after one's death, but they can also be done months and years later, depending on if the body has been refrigerated (weeks/months) or embalmed (years).
There are three main ways that death can be defined: legally, culturally or clinically. Find out what criteria are used to determine the moment of death.
Sudden unexplained death syndrome (SUDS): Sudden death in an otherwise healthy individual with no cause identified following a complete and detailed autopsy and death investigation; also known as "sudden adult death syndrome" or "sudden arrhythmogenic death syndrome" (SADS)
Because after eight hours, many natural changes start taking place in the dead body, due to which there is a high possibility of the investigation being tied. Also, there can be many changes in the post-mortem report as well. In such a situation, it is advised that the postmortem should be done as soon as possible.
Most autopsies of the head begin with the pathologist shaving the head to look for bruises (contusions) on the outside surface of the scalp (left). If the autopsy has been done properly, the head should be shaved for careful inspection.
Autopsies are diagnostic by nature, and can help a family learn more information about the disease processes that caused a patient's demise. For example, an autopsy could identify an unknown primary cancer, or it can allow doctors to perform examinations that were not feasible when the patient was alive.
Dissected organs may be returned to the body or incinerated. If the organs are not returned to the body, the mortician will put filler in the body cavity to retain the body's shape.
If your loved one died at home, immediately call 911. Depending on how the death occurred, the 911 operator may dispatch any or all of these: police, firefighters, and a coroner. If a coroner is not sent, you will need to call again for one to legally pronounce your loved one dead.
A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal.
Most examinations shouldn't delay a funeral or prevent a viewing of the body during a service. Funeral directors are usually able to hide any signs of the autopsy with clothing.
A complete autopsy requires the removal of the skull using a skull saw, and subsequent removal of the brain.
The first cut known as the 'Y' incision, is made.
The arms of the Y extend from the front of each shoulder to the bottom end of the breastbone.
After death, there is are no reflexes of the pupils to light and the cornea also loses its reflex. The cornea of the deceased also become cloudy after two hours of death. Besides that, the pressure in the eyes start to decrease and the eyeballs become flaccid before it they sink into the orbits of the eyes.
A few days after the death, the deceased person will need to be transported to a mortuary, where they can be kept in refrigerated conditions for around 4-6 weeks.
All of the procedures during an autopsy are conducted with great care in order to preserve the appearance of the deceased person, and to minimize alterations of the body.
Why do they cut you open during autopsy? Major blood vessels are also bisected and examined [source: Waters, Stoppler]. The examiner opens the stomach and examines and weighs the contents. This can sometimes be helpful in figuring out the time of death (more on time of death later).