When they do an autopsy, they remove organs. If they think there is foul play they keep them to study/evidence. If they cut your head open and remove the brain, weigh it, slice it, etc what do they do with it? Do they put everything back or are you buried gutless and brainless? I wouldn't think they would have time to do all the testing that needs to be done if they are planning on having a timely funeral.

Do they just leave you empty or do they put something else in? What? :shrug:

You ask weird questions.

The organs are probably disposed of, rather than reinserted into your lifeless body. I could be wrong, though, as I am not an expert on autopsy etiquette.

Aren't there religions where a body must be buried complete?

And its not weird. :p You've just never wondered it.

I think they put it back and sew everything back up.

I assume they put it back. For testing they only need very small samples.

Now there is a small part of the brain ( I forgot its name) that they rutinely remove because they can make medication from it....It is only a few grams....

Under Ohio law (http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071005/NEWS02/71005027/-1/RSS), brains, hearts and other body parts and fluids removed during an autopsy are classified as medical waste, which generally means they are incinerated after use. They don't put your brain and guts back in. It was the first one I found. I gotta google my state.

It just doesn't make sense to me that they would put it back in. Why would they?? :shrug:

I think they put it back and sew everything back up.

In most cases, no. Those organs decompose VERY rapidly (much quicker than flesh but less rapidly than blood) and are normally disposed of as soon as they've been examined. In cases of poisoning, small samples are retained as evidence but the rest is gotten rid of as quickly as possible. Refrigeration space in every morgue is at a premium.

As a case in point, there is currently a suit filed in a U.S. court about a young man's body being buried without his brain. Story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22804778/

so if they take out your brain, do they just bury you with an empty head or do they put packing in there? Would your eyeballs sink in if your brain is gone?

You ask weird questions.

The organs are probably disposed of, rather than reinserted into your lifeless body. I could be wrong, though, as I am not an expert on autopsy etiquette.

No you're right.

so how do they keep you from looking all caved in? What do they stuff you with?

They would most likely freeze the corpse, maybe even injecting it with special chemicals ect. Any amount of maximal degree of disection, would be i would imagine difficult to hide. But there are specialists who deal in preparring the corpse so that they look as though they had never been touched. If a brain had been removed, the hair would easily cover the disection. Also, the skull would maintain a flexible outer shell... much like the bone structure in a whole.\


Though... I'm not a dr. of medical science, so... I'm only basing this on what i think i know.

would the eyes sink in if the brain is gone?

would the eyes sink in if the brain is gone?

Nope. Never looked at a picture of a skull??

so how do they keep you from looking all caved in? What do they stuff you with?

Nothing special, really - just cellulose packing.

cellulose??? what is that? sawdust?

....If a brain had been removed, the hair would easily cover the disection. .....

they don't shave the skull?? :confused:

I wouldn't imagine they would have to...????

Maybe. Maybe they give them wigs. I have only watched one autopsy in my life.

An autopsy or post-mortem is always performed when someone dies in a hospital.
Pathologists take samples (about 2-3 cc) of tissue from the major organs (brain, liver, lung, heart, kidney, pancreas, stomach, etc). I don't think they need to remove any organs completely, unless there is a specific reason, or they want to preserve it for the histology "museum", that all hospitals have.

The tissue samples are dried by soaking in solvents like alchohol, xylene, etc (they have machines that do this), and then embedded in parrafin wax, and sliced very thinly (about 2-3 thou of an inch) with a microtome.

The slices float in a warm bath of water, and can be "picked up" with a clean glass slide. Then the slides are stained (sometimes a special staining procedure, like to check for gram-positive or negative bacterial infection, is done, and three or four slides of the same tissue sample are prepared).
Sometimes they do a rapid preparation, like when someone is still under, to determine if tissue is cancerous (like a breast biopsy), and it gets snap frozen, sliced and stained immediately, rather than spending ~24 hours in solvents.

I once had a sizeable collection of histo slides that were binned in a clean-out, all examples of healthy and diseased tissue (heart, lung, liver, kidney, etc). It's an interesting field of study, but I'm no pathologist (I was a lab tech once).

cellulose??? what is that? sawdust?

No, it's much like cheap brown (unbleached) paper used in shipping packages. Some may even use those plastic peanuts by now. They don't buy it, it comes into the morgue in boxes with their supplies.

Incidentally, they only use it in the chest cavity if the ribs have been cut. Bodies on display for viewing at funerals are only exposed (though clothed, of course) from the chest up.

they don't shave the skull?? :confused:

They can remove the brain from the nose!

And there you have it.

An autopsy or post-mortem is always performed when someone dies in a hospital.


In your part of the world, perhaps, but certainly not in the U.S. nor many other countries either.

yeah, I think a family has to request it or the law does. If a child has died its almost mandatory.

They can remove the brain from the nose!

LOL!!! Yeah, that's how the ancient Egyptians did it but you won't find THAT procedure done in any M.E. morgue! :D

An autopsy or post-mortem is always performed when someone dies in a hospital.....

I don't think that's true. If I'm in a car wreck and die in ER, what would be the point of an autopsy? Or if I'm 80 dieing of cancer, what would be the point of an autopsy?


And the religions where you have to be buried complete, I take it they don't donate organs.

It's about determining the cause of death. If there are doubts, they open the body and have a look.
If you die of obvious fatal injuries, an autopsy would be irrelevant.
If you're 80 and die in a hospital cancer ward, I'm pretty sure they would still do one, or at least schedule one. Also there is the consent issue, which is where the religious or cultural issues come into it.

If you're in a hospital--not the ER--with some disease or other, and you die, an autopsy is usually made. But I guess they wouldn't be able to perform them on every hospital death, or they would have some sort of selection rules, maybe. Ask a pathologist how many they do, say in a month, or a day. The histology section I worked in was pretty busy making slides for the pathologists.

Well, that shut everyone up for a bit.

Well, that shut everyone up for a bit.

Well, not really.

What you've been saying may well be true in your corner of the world but it certainly is not in the U.S. I noticed that you changed your tune CONSIDERABLY from "always" to " if there is a question."

But yet you continue to present the assumption that it's pretty well taken for granted as automatic. I also worked in a hospital for a bit and, in addition. know several local doctors and hospital staff members. And I can assure you that what you keep asserting is NOT the case in this country (U.S.).

When they do an autopsy, they remove organs. If they think there is foul play they keep them to study/evidence. If they cut your head open and remove the brain, weigh it, slice it, etc what do they do with it? Do they put everything back or are you buried gutless and brainless? I wouldn't think they would have time to do all the testing that needs to be done if they are planning on having a timely funeral.

Do they just leave you empty or do they put something else in? What? :shrug:

I don't know about being buried brainless but I do know some people are born that way

they don't shave the skull?? :confused:

No they give that to pirates along with the crossbones

They can remove the brain from the nose!

Does that mean I shouldn't pick my nose for fear of damaging my brain ?

Autopsies are expensive, sometimes deliver bad news (about diagnosis,treatment, etc), and almost never profitable: hospitals in the US don't do enough of them to even maintain quality control on care.

Another defect of the US health care system. It screws up all the stats, too - cause of death = best guess by the attending physician,who sometimes has a conflict of interest.

I once listened to a computer programmer complain about the program they were writing to deliver the diagnosis from a given set of symptoms that would pay the best from the Federal government. This was not for use by the physicians, who were expected to deliver (usually cheaper) treatment as their best judgment indicated, but for billing purposes.

I can only imagine what the cause of death was, in the event. And no autopsies for control, of course. I remember that every time I see a "cause of death" table or epidemiological study.

Does that mean I shouldn't pick my nose for fear of damaging my brain ?

too late. I think you've also been eating pieces of it. :p

I can assure you that what you keep asserting is NOT the case in this country (U.S.).Right, but everyone else in the world knows the US doesn't have a health system.
More a lottery system, if you're lucky, you get to pay for it.

Right, but everyone else in the world knows the US doesn't have a health system.
More a lottery system, if you're lucky, you get to pay for it.

Health care doesn't even enter in the picture. To perform autopsies on everyone that died in a hospital - as you originally said - would be a TREMENDOUS waste of money, time, medical staff and other resources. For any country, regardless of what system they have in place.

Of course it bloody would.

A post-mortem doesn't have to involve looking at tissue samples down a microscope. But the cause of death is always determined. Like I said, if there's doubt, they take a look under the hood. This is what happens, or is supposed to.
Of course there are scheduled autopsies that don't get performed, but a post-mortem isn't always a dice-slice; if there's plenty of evidence already, like from all the tests.

It's more a quality-control thing.

...
Now there is a small part of the brain ( I forgot its name) that they rutinely remove because they can make medication from it....It is only a few grams....

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which part of the brian that is?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which part of the brian that is?

I don't think that statement is true at all !! I'd sure like to see some proof of it!!

However, there IS a small part that's removed for the purpose of TESTING for the presence of drugs. It's called the basal ganglia - and is often referred to as the "primitive brain."

Ah that thing!! why only the basal ganglia though?

Ah that thing!! why only the basal ganglia though?

Because it's the part that directs the rest and for that reason drugs target it.

Wow man I never knew that.

So all your functions boil down to the basal ganglia?

Wow man I never knew that.

So all your functions boil down to the basal ganglia?

No, but it does serve as sort of a master controller. There are many regions of the brain that do tons of the processing (and a lot of those have been fairly accurately mapped( and memory storage. But it still is in charge of distributing the workload and 'teaching' the cerebral cortex how to do it's job.

Interesting, isn't it? :)

No, but it does serve as sort of a master controller. There are many regions of the brain that do tons of the processing (and a lot of those have been fairly accurately mapped( and memory storage. But it still is in charge of distributing the workload and 'teaching' the cerebral cortex how to do it's job.

Interesting, isn't it? :)

That was what I meant when I asked that. If it acted as the 'core' or whatever that directed everything else...

Yeah...and it's awesome...we don't appreciate the brain enough. The thought that all your subjective experience happens in that little mass of tissue...that's awesome.

That was what I meant when I asked that. If it acted as the 'core' or whatever that directed everything else...

Yeah...and it's awesome...we don't appreciate the brain enough. The thought that all your subjective experience happens in that little mass of tissue...that's awesome.

Yep, that's true. And even though there are centers for processing visual and audible information and other sensory input as well as the thought processes, it's still all dependent on that little 'primitive brain' to have provided the main directions/instructions. I suppose in computer terms it could be compared to the main BIOS chip and bootstrap loader.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which part of the brian that is?

There is a gland or two (pituitary? pineal? biology was a long time ago) at the front base of the brain that produce HGH iirc. It used to be harvested, but Genentech, Amgen, etc have made that obsolete.