Autopsy - External Exam #path
- confirm ID - document personal belongings (e.g. clothes), medical equipment - photography checklist - state of preservation: - grade skin sloughing 0-3. large single patch 70% of the abdomen can bump this to a "level 2". → severe maceration indicates intrauterine death days before delivery - fingers and toes count (e.g. 5 x 4), polydactyly or syndactyly - measurements as per worksheet; plus philtrum and Inner canthal distance (ICD between the medial canthi), Outer canthal distance (OCD, lateral/outer corners of palpebral fissures) there are more reliable than pupillary distance - congenital marker checklist - Genitalia (ambiguous, hypospadias, cryptorchidism, labial abnormalities) - skull plate (anterior fontanel, "sutures" of the skull, 'fontanel' like fountain or spring arising from rocks). bulging anterior fontenelle → increased intracranial pressure (cerebral edema, meningitis); sunken fontanelle → dehydration. closures of the different sutures occur at different age specific times. assessing premature closures (craniosynostosis), widening, overlap, separation (hypothyroidism, rickets, hydrocelphalus) - spine; open defects → meningocele, defects in closure of the neural tube; curvature → scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis, hemivertebrae-associated curvature