Cause of death

[Jasminegab]

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Has anyone during anatomy discovered the cause of death of the cadaver you are working on? This has crossed my mind and since we don't use cadavers and I'm not sure if the cadavers have had an autopsy before arriving at your school, I was just wondering if anyone has discovered the reason the person died?

This is not to make think I'm crazy. I'm just looking for answer such as you found a 99% blockage in a vasculature or whatever which is not normal and could be the cause of death.

 

[BassDominator]

At Einstein, we actually have a short assignment at the end of anatomy to write about what we think was the cause of death for the cadaver.... or, to write about some abnormal finding. Ours had metastatic pancreatic cancer, but it's often really hard to determine the cause of death.

Just curious, how do you guys learn anatomy without cadavers?

 

[Jasminegab]

At Einstein, we actually have a short assignment at the end of anatomy to write about what we think was the cause of death for the cadaver.... or, to write about some abnormal finding. Ours had metastatic pancreatic cancer, but it's often really hard to determine the cause of death.

Just curious, how do you guys learn anatomy without cadavers?

We watch dissection video's from medical schools.

 

[debvz]

Our anatomy dept posts a list with the age and cause of death of each of the cadavers.

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

Toward the last few weeks of our anatomy class, we got a paper with our cadaver's age, cause of death, and county of death.

 

[Medical123]

Our anatomy department also posts a list with the age of our cadavers and cause of death. I think it is interesting to be able to go over to a table that has a cadaver from a person who died of breast cancer or heart disease, for example and see the anatomical pathology associated with their condition.

 

[NateatUC]

Our anatomy dept posts a list with the age and cause of death of each of the cadavers.

About half way through the year, each group at our school gets a card with their cadaver's age and COD. Sometimes we do find evidence before that, though.

I would guess that nobody uses cadavers that have had autopsies. If you've ever seen an autopsy, you know that in the process, everything gets taken out and put back into the major body cavities, so the only anatomy that would be useful would be the limbs.

 

[madtowngirl]

Our school has information on cause of death. We waited until end of semester to come up with a guess then double checked it after we were done, to see if we were right. Some groups got cards from the family of their cadaver even.

On another note, I feel bad for schools that don't have cadavers for anatomy. I don't think I could learn enough from videos or simulations like I do from actually looking inside. Plus, you'd never get to see those cool little differences among individuals. But it seems like several schools do without gross lab.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Every one of ours died of cardiac arrest, although they never told us the underlying cause for any of them.

 

[lattimer13]

Our anatomy dept posts a list with the age and cause of death of each of the cadavers.

same here.

to the OP...i think it would be quite difficult for an MS I to determine the cause of death.

 

[flighterdoc]

Every one of ours died of cardiac arrest, although they never told us the underlying cause for any of them.

Well, except for decapitations, everybody does die of cardiac arrest, don't they?

 

[jakstat33]

Well, except for decapitations, everybody does die of cardiac arrest, don't they?

respiratory arrest

 

[flighterdoc]

respiratory arrest

Nope, the heart keeps beating after respiratory arrest. Happens all the time.

 

[Jalopycat]

At my school, we meet the family of the cadaver during orientation week. We can find out then, or the cause of death is also posted on the cadaver tank.

 

[Skialta]

At our med school, we had path residents come periodically throughout the course of disection and we took sections of all major organs and anything else that looked interesting. At the end of the block we looked at the slides in histology and wrote up autopsy reports, it was a good way to tie in both histology and anatomy and path.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

Well, except for decapitations, everybody does die of cardiac arrest, don't they?

Yeah, when the heart stops it's all over.

 

[Anasazi23]

We cracked open the chest cavity, and were met by pounds of dried blood. It looked like our cadaver had a massive dissecting aorta with rupture. We fell slightly behind because it took us over a day just to get all the dried blood out of the chest and inside the heart.

He also had a volvulus the size of a cantaloupe, huge gallstones, and a liquefied brain.

 

[Medical123]

At our med school, we had path residents come periodically throughout the course of disection and we took sections of all major organs and anything else that looked interesting. At the end of the block we looked at the slides in histology and wrote up autopsy reports, it was a good way to tie in both histology and anatomy and path.

I think that would be an interesting way to learn all of the stuff that we need to know!

 

[medic8m]

Isn't cardiopulmonary arrest actually a mechanism of death rather than a COD? Instead, cardiac arrhythmia or AMI would be an acceptable underlying cause of death.

 

[Cowboy DO]

Isn't cardiopulmonary arrest actually a mechanism of death rather than a COD? Instead, cardiac arrhythmia or AMI would be an acceptable underlying cause of death.

I agree with you on that one. Cardiopulmonary arrest is describing someone who is dead, not why they died. It's only half the story so to speak.

At our school we don't get a list of causes, but we do have a Pathologist who is in our lab most of the time and he's pretty good at pointing out some of the gross pathology, which may have caused death. Then there are some of the easier ones, we had one AAA , a couple of MI's, some obvious cancer, etc..

What I thought was cool is that not only could you tell why some of them died but you could also see some of the problems they might have had while they were alive. Like some cadavers had pacemakers, or colostomy tubes. You could also see other prior surgeries (hysterectomies, hip replacements, etc).

 

[debvz]

What I thought was cool is that not only could you tell why some of them died but you could also see some of the problems they might have had while they were alive. Like some cadavers had pacemakers, or colostomy tubes. You could also see other prior surgeries (hysterectomies, hip replacements, etc).

Don't forget the glass eyes and penile implants!

 

[jakstat33]

Nope, the heart keeps beating after respiratory arrest. Happens all the time.

right, and pumps deoxygenated blood to heavenbound tissue

 

[Cowboy DO]

Don't forget the glass eyes and penile implants!

How could I forget, those things are a marvel of human ingenuity and fun for the whole family...

...oh thats right, I went there. 😀