Pulmonary pathology in Medicolegal autopsies

Primary involvement of lungs is seen in various types of infections, neoplasms and autoimmune diseases. But secondary involvement of lungs is common and it is seen in almost all terminal diseases. Clinical features and imaging studies are sometimes nonspecific and clueless. Autopsy study of lung is of great value to know the pulmonary alterations and disease processes. Present study comprised of 475 medicolegal autopsy cases received in the Department of Pathology for histopathological reporting during a period from January 2014 to December 2015. Lung specimens were examined thoroughly and processesed for routine paraffine embedding, H & E staining. Detailed microscopic examination was done. Present study observed that lung diseases were more common in males. Commonest pathological lesion was acute pulmonary congestion (58.95%) followed by pneumonia (41.47%). Rare lesion like pulmonary hypertension (2.32%) and atelectasis (0.84%) were also encounterd. Malignancies were observed in 1.05% of cases.