Histopathological changes in pancreas in cases of death due to burn injuries-A pilot study on postmortem histopathology

Burn injury causes significant fatality every year with its immediate effect or complications. This is 6th most frequent cause of unnatural death & 3rd most frequent cause of suicidal death. Organ specific pathology has been studied a lot, but pancreatic pathology has been missed and overlooked over the years. This prospective, observational, cross-sectional study was aimed to find out gross & microscopic histopathology changes of pancreas in burn cases & to correlate the pathological findings with the duration of survival after receiving burn injury and total body surface area burnt (TBSA). It was done on medico-legal autopsy cases with burn injury over 4 months. All cases irrespective of gender and age were included except decomposed bodies. The survival period was noted from available documents and TBSA calculated using ‘Rule of nine ’. Pancreatic specimen retrieved and preserved in 10% formalin solution, processed & examined macro & microscopically. Total 13 cases (9 female, 4 male) aged between 19 to 38 years examined while survival period varied from 7 hours to 429.5 hours & TBSA varied from 44.5% to 93.5%. Patchy area of blackish discoloration found in 3 cases macroscopically. Microscopically-pancreatic oedema, congestion was most consistent finding, hemorrhage being inconsistent & necrosis rarest along with various other significant findings suggestive of severe pancreatic inflammation. Extensive study with larger sample size and extensive recruitment of samples can yield significant evidence in future.