As sad as I was to leave the beautiful city of Los Angeles, I am enjoying my new rotation in Pittsburgh. It has been quite the adjustment getting used to the weather change, but I just keep piling on the layers of clothing. This new rotation is in autopsy rotation at UPMC Presbyterian. Up until this week, I had only observed an autopsy so it has been quite the experience being able to get hands on during one. I have loved every minute of it so far, aside from some of the smells that come along with it.
The autopsy rotation is pretty laid back and the work goes on a day by day basis. If there is a body, we work and if not, I study most of the day or look at slides from previous cases. At UPMC Presbyterian, the staff I work with consists of Dr. Nine, a resident, a medical student, an autopsy tech, and then myself. We always work as a team on all the autopsies and switch off doing different tasks during the autopsy so we all learn every step of the process. The autopsy begins with an external examination, which includes documenting physical characteristics as well as any tattoos, scars, and medical devices in the body. We then start the autopsy by doing a "Y" incision, removing the rib cage, and removing any abdominal, pleural, and pericardial sac fluid. Then, we remove the bowel by clamping off at the rectum and the duodenum. We use the en bloc evisceration technique, which means the organs are removed as one big "block." For us, this means we take out the abdominal and thoracic organs together, still connected, then the bowel, and finally, the pelvic organs. Once they are removed, we dissect each organ, weigh, describe them, and take sections. Finally, the brain is removed, weighed, and placed in formalin to be dissected at a brain cutting conference after it has been fixed. In all, the process takes anywhere from 3-4 hours to complete. It's a long process, but it's very interesting you learn a lot in the process.
I'm only one week in and I'm looking forward to next week and the interesting cases to come!
