Hospital Autopsy

Julian L Burton MBChB (Hons) MEd FHEASenior Teaching Fellow and Senate Award Fellow (Learning and Teaching) at the University of Sheffield, SheffieldandCoronial Pathologist at the Medico-Legal Centre, SheffieldGuy Rutty MD MBBS FRCPath DipRCPath(Forensic) FFFLM FFSSocProfessor of Forensic Pathology, Chief Forensic Pathologist, East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, University of LeicesterandHome Office Registered Forensic Pathologist, Leicester, UK

"The Hospital Autopsy is greatly needed at a time when many junior pathologists are struggling to gain adequate autopsy teaching and experience...it is an essential text for reference in the post-mortem suite, as well as being useful for the examination"—Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists"Nine years on from the last edition there has been considerable expansion... Significant improvements include the use of colour for photographs, diagrams, sub-headings and summary boxes... It is... essential reading for the dwindling band of autopsy pathologists."—ACP News

• The history of the autopsy. The future of the autopsy. The role of the autopsy in medical education. Autopsies and the law. Religious attitudes to death and post-mortem examinations. The safe and healthy autopsy. Autopsies of people with high-risk infections. The external examination. The pathology of wounds and injuries. The evisceration. Dissection of the internal organs. Examination of the nervous system. Fetal, perinatal and infant autopsies. The maternal autopsy. Toxicological and biochemical analyses. Microbiology of the autopsy. Investigating possible anaphylactic deaths. Perioperative and postoperative deaths. The radiological autopsy. The decomposed body and the unascertained autopsy. Reconstruction of the body. Autopsies and clinical audit. Reports, documentation and statements.