Study of liver pathology in autopsy cases-original article

A wide spectrum of primary as well as secondary diseases can affect liver. In the present study liver was examined from clinical autopsies during the period of 5 year. The aim of study was to study spectrum of histopathological lesions encountered in liver autopsy. Five years retro prospective study included 451 clinical autopsies. Sections from liver were studied with the help of H&E and special stains wherever necessary. The various hepatic lesions in this study were circulatory disorders (29.05%), hepatitis (21.29%), steatosis, (16.18%), cirrhosis (4.43%), granulomatous hepatitis (3.10%) and various hepatic neoplasm (2.88%), hepatic abscesses (0.89%), liver disorder in pregnancy (0.67%), metabolic disorders (0.44%) and hepatic lesions in multisystem diseases like malaria (0.22%). Circulatory disorder was the most common finding followed by steatosis. Primary and secondary neoplasms were seen in 13 cases of liver autopsies. The serious and fatal lesions of fulminant hepatitis with sub massive and massive necrosis were found in 4 cases. An autopsy is a magnificent learning tool in the hands of pathologists to study the histopathological spectrum of diseases which help to study the in situ disease process as well as rare incidental diagnosis.