Background: The lungs are secondarily involved in almost all forms of terminal events. The study of these lesions will help in devising prophylactic strategies to reduce associated mortality.
Objectives: To find the frequency of various lung lesions in relation to age, and sex, and to analyze the histopathological spectrum of lung lesions in autopsy cases.
material and methods: Two years of retrospective studies based on hospital records from January 2019 - December 2020 carried out in the department of pathology. Lungs were fixed in 10% formalin & processed. Paraffin wax embedding was done & sections were stained with H & E stain. Gross and microscopic examinations of samples were conducted for diagnosis.
results: A total of 147 cases with lung specimens were received during the period of study. Among these, 47 (32%) cases showed tissue autolysis of the lung. The age ranged from 8 months to 80 years. The majority of cases analyzed were from adults, and only 8 (5.5%) cases were below 15 years of age. Pathologies were detected in 99 cases and one case had unremarkable histology. The majority of the cases (77%) were males. Microscopic findings seen included congestion and edema (30%), inflammation (acute pneumonia, granulomatous and fungal) (23%), emphysema (20%), changes in the interstitium (12%) and pulmonary thromboembolism (12%). The majority of pulmonary thromboembolism was seen in the age group of 16-30 years.
conclusion: Congestion and edema followed by pneumonia were the most commonly observed pathological lung lesions in our study. Autopsy study of lung lesions can provide insight to plan certain preventive strategies to reduce morbidity and mortality due to lung pathology.