Best basic autopsy text

[pathologic]

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What is the best all around autopsy text book?

 

[deleted314957]

Current methods of autopsy practice. I have 2nd edition from 1979 and i don't know if it is still in print or available. Try amazon. As an ap/cp/fp i think it is great. AUTHOR IS JURGEN LUDWIG

 

[tardieu]

Current methods of autopsy practice. I have 2nd edition from 1979 and i don't know if it is still in print or available. Try amazon. As an ap/cp/fp i think it is great. AUTHOR IS JURGEN LUDWIG

There’s also the book by Finkbiner, Autopsy Manual and Atlas, or something like that.

But it depends what you are looking for. When I was starting in autopsy, I asked the autopsy director at my program the same question about books. I told her I was looking for some sort of step by step outline of the process. She looked a little bemused and suggested I read Netter. I thought that advice was extremely unhelpful, so I kept asking around. The other attendings and senior residents just shrugged. A few of the more studious types pointed me towards the Finkbiner and Ludwig books. I found those books to be extremely, as in overwhelmingly, comprehensive. It is like when you were first learning how to drive someone handed you a set of Chilton manuals. I really tried to get something out of those books, but I just did not have the attention span. They made me feel frightened and stupid. I never did find the simple guide I was looking for. So eventually I just thumbed through Netters, picked up a scalpel and started cutting. It all worked out. If you are looking for an encyclopedia autopsica, those books are fantastic. But if you are looking for practical how to, I think your best bet is to bone up on gross anatomy and try to watch someone else do some cases. Wish I could be more helpful.

If anyone knows of other good books, I'd be interested to know.

 

[deleted314957]

another very good one, a diagrammatical how-to is called POSTMORTEM EXAMINATION-SPECIFIC METHODS AND PROCEDURES. by Roger Baker.
published 1967 by saunders. i am sure it must be out of print but amazon may have one.

 

[pathstudent]

I think virchow had a book back in 1876. You might be able to find one in a museum in pAris or London or Vienna

 

[Parts Unknown]

I think virchow had a book back in 1876. You might be able to find one in a museum in pAris or London or Vienna

It's official. You're 12 and your father is a pathologist.

 

[Freak]

It's official. You're 12 and your father is a pathologist.

So March 2003 => he joined SDN at the tender age of 5.

 

[Entgegen]

It's official. You're 12 and your father is a pathologist.

I thought what pathstudent said there was actually kinda' funny...

 

[pathstudent]

I thought what pathstudent said there was actually kinda' funny...

It was meant to be funny in response to those recommendations of books that are almost 50 years old,

 

[Parts Unknown]

So March 2003 => he joined SDN at the tender age of 5.

No, at age 10 he hacked his dad's dormant SDN account. His father hasn't noticed because he long ago abandoned this Godforsaken corner of the internet.

It's the only logical explanation.

 

[tardieu]

another very good one, a diagrammatical how-to is called POSTMORTEM EXAMINATION-SPECIFIC METHODS AND PROCEDURES. by Roger Baker.
published 1967 by saunders. i am sure it must be out of print but amazon may have one.

Amazon doesn't have one. In fact when I googled (or shall I now say Topekad) the title, your post here was the second hit! Thanks for the lead. I'm always looking for autopsy teaching materials.

 

[Parts Unknown]

Amazon doesn't have one. In fact when I googled (or shall I now say Topekad) the title, your post here was the second hit! Thanks for the lead. I'm always looking for autopsy teaching materials.

Try Alibris.com.

There is nothing wrong with texts from the 1960's and 1970's. Basic autopsy technique hasn't undergone many advances in the past five decades.

 

[deleted314957]

Pathstudent,
I would not be as interested in a post-mortem opus by Virchow ( who tended to do things organ-by-organ) but you may want to look into a bibliography of a fellow named Rokitansky.
Regards, Dr. Hose

 

[KCShaw]

Glad to have stumbled on this -- I hadn't actually heard of two of the older books. If anyone stumbles on a source for the "Postmortem Examination - Specific methods and procedures" text, I'd be happy to hear about it (Amazon nor Alibris seem to have a hit).

For basic texts, though, I'm somewhat surprised the CAP sources haven't been mentioned. Try www.cap.org and weave your way through the publications tab to autopsy sources. In addition to some free PDF's and several publications, there are three I think of particular interest -- two laminated technique booklets and one performance & reporting text. They may be the more basic/fundamental style people without much autopsy experience or demand may find most useful and least overwhelming.

Unfortunately a lot of autopsy "training" these days seems geared towards grossing in the body for microscopic exam, and/or cutting things just because. People largely learn by watching someone else do it, or by being left alone long enough they figure out a way to get by entirely on their own, rather than by learning standardized practices. Fortunately there are a lot of ways to do it and get an acceptable, if not always ideal, result.

Finkbeiner's book and the more recent Ludwig book "Handbook of Autopsy Practice" I have, but honestly rarely use except for the standard measurement tables in the back. Occasionally they're useful for academic purposes or to read about something uncommon, but usually I go for a text or paper specific to that abnormality.

 

[KCShaw]

Having just opened up my more recent (2002) Ludwig and glanced at the preface, I see it -is- the 3rd edition of the old (1979) 2nd edition "Current Methods of Autopsy Practice" text, but now under the new title of "Handbook of Autopsy Practice."

 

[smallcat]

Thanks for this thread- just found the CAP materials squirreled away in our library. Very helpful, just what I needed- not as encylopedic as the Ludwig book.