Histopathological Study of Liver in Medicolegal Cases: A Tertiary Care Centre Study

Abstract

Background: The pathological examinations of medicolegal cases is not confined to determining the cause of death but also useful in teaching pathogenesis and demography of the disease. Liver is the principal site of many metabolic activities and is vulnerable to many metabolic, toxic, microbial and circulatory insults. Due to enormous functional reserve, many liver lesions are silent till late in the course of disease. Aims: This study aimed to analyse histopathological findings of liver diseases in medicolegal cases and correlate with clinical findings wherever available. Methods and Material: The present study is a retrospective observational study with 262 medicolegal autopsy cases over a one-year period conducted in the Department of Pathology of a tertiary care centre. Representative tissue from the liver was collected in 10% neutral buffered formalin and sent for histopathological examination. Results: Total 262 medicolegal cases studied showed predominance of male (68.65%). Maximum cases were in the age group of 21 to 30 years (20.14%) followed by 31 to 40 years (18.28%). The most common lesion was steatosis, accounting for 78 (30%) out of 262 liver specimens. There were 43 (16.5%) cases of congestion, 20 (7.8%) cases of hepatitis and 17 (6.5%) cases of steatohepatitis. Ten (4%) cases of cirrhosis were noted. Conclusions: The present study showed that Histological analysis of liver is important learning objective for pathologists and a significant role in ascertaining the cause and manner of death.