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The Pathology of Shock Versus Post-mortem Change

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Essentials of Autopsy Practice

Abstract

It does not matter what type of autopsy-based pathology you practice, be it foetal, neonatal and paediatric, adult, neuropathological or forensic, you will come across many cases where the patient has suffered localised or systemic organ failure and “shock” as part of their terminal illness. This maybe suggested within the clinical history or documented within the hospital notes but needs to be confirmed during the autopsy examination. However, if there is a delay between death and the autopsy examination then post-mortem autolysis will occur which may, especially if the time period goes beyond a day, confuse the picture presented to the pathologist. It is with this in mind that this chapter does not discuss the physiology of shock but rather concentrates on the macroscopic and microscopic pathology of shock and how, when possible, to differentiate the changes from that of post-mortem autolysis. Although the pathological descriptions of shock have been documented previously within the medical literature, these texts have, at times, been poorly illustrated. This chapter brings these texts together and concentrates on illustrating the macroscopic and microscopic changes of shock to provide a comprehensive reference source on this subject.

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Authors
  1. G. N. Rutty
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Forensic Pathology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Guy Nathan Rutty MD, MB, BS, FRCPath, DipRCPath(Forensic) (Professor of Forensic Pathology and Head of Division, Consultant Home Office Pathologist) (Professor of Forensic Pathology and Head of Division, Consultant Home Office Pathologist)

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Rutty, G.N. (2004). The Pathology of Shock Versus Post-mortem Change. In: Rutty, G.N. (eds) Essentials of Autopsy Practice. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0637-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0637-1_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-1168-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0637-1

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