Publication:

Incidental findings in autopsy examination of liver: a study at tertiary care hospital

Background Liver is the site of many diseases, many of which become symptomatic while some are diagnosed only on autopsy examination. We aimed to determine the prevalence of silent liver diseases in autopsy examination.

Methods Liver specimens were collected from 450 cases as a part of examination of multiple viscera, over a period of one year from January 2013 to December 2013. Sections from representative area were submitted for processing. After processing tissues were sectioned and stained with H&E stain. For evaluation of liver architecture special stains were also used whenever required.

Results Total 409 from 450 liver specimens were evaluated for autopsy examination. 233 (56.97%) cases had no remarkable pathology. Most common salient liver disease found in our study was fatty change, 146 (35.69%) cases, followed by cirrhosis of liver 10 (2.44%) cases. Maximum cases of fatty change were found in age group of 31-40 years (30.13%). Other important liver diseases found were hepatitis (0.98%), chronic venous congestion (1.22%), liver necrosis (1.22%), granulomatous lesions (0.49%) and malignant lesions (0.48%).

Conclusions Silent diseases of the liver are not uncommon. Autopsy examination of liver is very helpful to identify silent liver diseases like fatty change, cirrhosis, venous congestion and malignant tumours.