Effect of Embalming Fluid on the Histological Appearance of Organs - A Cadaveric Study

Objective: Histopathological investigations with tissues from embalmed cadavers are generally notconsidered ideal for determining the cause of death at autopsy in forensic medicine. Instead fresh tissuefixed in 10% formalin is usually preferred. The aim of the present study was to compare the histologicalappearances of samples processed from routine formalin-embalmed cadaver with samples fixed in 10%formalin from a fresh cadaver.Methods: The study was carried out on cadavers received as donation to the department of Anatomy frombody donors. Tissue samples of four organs comprising kidney, lung, liver and spleen were obtained from afresh cadaver (used as control) as well as from embalmed cadavers. The quality of the slides was graded 1to 3 based on organ microscopic architecture, cell morphology and state of epithelium, as follows: 1 - highdegree of cell distortion, 2 -moderately good sections and 3 - near normal.Results: Kidney: Slight architectural distortion, with collapsed convoluted tubules were observed inembalmed tissue sections (grade 2). Lung: The architecture of the embalmed tissue showed alveolarspaces that were cystically dilated, but pneumocytes appeared normal (grade 2). Liver and spleen: Thecell morphology and The cell morphology and architecture appeared almost as preserved as in fresh tissue.(grade 3).Conclusion: Of the four organs studied, liver and spleen were well preserved and close to normal, whereascytoarchitecture of lung and kidney specimens showed slight distortion. However this is a preliminary studyand efforts are on to study more number of specimens with varying concentrations of formalin.