Compare And Contrast Letulle And Virchow

Different autopsy methods are useful in different situations. I have previously mentioned Rokitansky method which involves examining the organs in situ “a condition sometimes mandated by a restrictive autopsy consent or severe time limitations” (Finkbeiner 35). But there are other methods that involve removal of the organs including Letulle, Ghon and Virchow. Both the Letulle and Virchow start the same way: a Y incision is made and the skin is reflected from the chest and abdomen. If the patient is a younger woman the initial Y incision may be modified to large U around the breast to allow the deceased to be buried in a blouse that shows the chest. The chest plate also has to be removed in both cases.
For the Letulle method after reflecting …show more content…
In this particular method the organs are removed one by one. That helps demonstrate “pathologic changes in organs but sacrifices inter-organ relationships and makes interpretation of regional disease more difficult” (35). After the initial incision and retraction of the skin, I look for the thymus, remove and weigh it. If the thymus is not present, which is often the case with adults, I move on to examine the “ascending aorta, its arch and the arch branches”. The aorta should be cut just distal to the great vessels. Next, I find and open the pulmonary arteries examining them for thromboembolism. After examining the pulmonary arteries, I detach the heart from the lungs by cutting the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins close to the pulmonary hila. Next I need to cut the inferior vena cava as it comes through the diaphragm. After this the heart can be removed and weighed. Next, the lungs must be freed from the remaining hilar structures by cutting along the pulmonary hilum. After the lungs are freed they need to be weighed individually and the results recorded …show more content…
As stated before I prefer the modified version of this method that removes the small and large intestines before the thoracic and other abdominal organs. Besides being easier to lift, there is less of a chance that the bowel will be perforated and the field flooded with feces. There are several areas where I still have difficulty, those include finding the ligament of Treitz quickly and removing the brain. However, the area where I struggle the most is removing the bladder block. This requires a lot of strength to detach the bladder from the surrounding soft tissue. This is sometimes the hardest part depending on whether the bladder is adherent to the pelvic wall or if the individual has a narrow