Incidental Histological Findings in Medico-legal Autopsies

A handful of histopathological findings unrelated to the cause of death are noticed in routine histopathological examination of medicolegal autopsies. These findings which are of practically no significance to the autopsy report however have an immense academic value. A two year retrospective study of organs of total 48 medicolegal post-mortem was undertaken to find out various incidental histopathological findings in autopsy specimens. The present study showed that in maximum cases pathology was detected in cardiovascular system (43.3%) followed by respiratory system (16.6%). Out of the various organ received for histopathological examination, 21 Atherosclerosis, 8 Pneumonia, 6 Cirrhosis, 5 Tuber culosis, 4 fungal infections, 2 glioblastoma multiforme etc. were observed. Autopsy cause of death and contributing findings were based on the macro-and microscopic post-mortem findings combined with clinical information. Incidental histopathologic findings may not be found to influence the cause of death but nonetheless reveal many interesting facts related to epidemiology, which help in academic and research purpose