Quantifying the loss of pulmonary fluid from dissecting the lung at post-mortem

ABSTRACT

Weighing of organs is a standard requirement in post-mortem examination. Ideally, the lungs should be weighed intact to prevent pulmonary fluids loss. However, there are instances where the lungs are weighted fully or partially dissected. Although suggested to be ‘appreciable’, the amount of pulmonary fluid loss from dissecting the lung is not quantified. To quantify the amount of pulmonary fluid loss from dissecting the lung at post-mortem, this study compared 40 pairs of lungs weighed intact and dissected using two different dissection methods. The result of our study showed that the amount of pulmonary fluid loss may vary from different dissection methods and correlates positively (weakly to moderately) with intact lung weight. However, the average pulmonary fluid loss from dissection was <20 g (<3% of the intact lung weight) and was considered neither clinically significant nor ‘appreciable’.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-mortem
• autopsy
• organ weight
• lungs

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Doctors Kilak Kesha, Charley Glenn and Paul Morrow for their assistance in preparing this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).