PM Instruments PDF

Measuring Tape Uses: To measure the length of the body To measure the dimensions of the wound To measure the dimensions of various organs e.g. - uterus To measure the thickness of the right and left ventricles  Syringe with Needle Uses: Drawing various sam...

Measuring Tape Uses: To measure the length of the body To measure the dimensions of the wound To measure the dimensions of various organs e.g. - uterus To measure the thickness of the right and left ventricles  Syringe with Needle Uses: Drawing various samples for chemical analysis in cases of suspected poising such as 1. Blood 2. Urine To draw the following fluids to estimate the post-mortem interval 1. CSF 2. Vitreous humour  Magnifying Glass Uses: To look for any foreign body in the wound To differentiate between incised looking wound and incised wound To find out the direction of grazed abrasion To look for rifling marks from a bullet retrieved from the body during autopsy To have a better view of cresentic nail marks in cases of throttling To have a better view of trace evidence underneath fingernails in victims of suspected sexual assault cases and to collect them  Scalpels Two types: 1. Detachable (known as Bard Parker knife) 2. Non detachable Uses: – To make various incisions on the body so as to open the thoracic and abdominal cavity – While opening the cranial cavity To reflect the scalp To cut the various cranial nerves and tentorium cerebelli while removing the brain – Dissection of the heart- For serial sectioning of the coronary arteries to check their patency – In foetal autopsy to find out the ossification centres at the knee, elbow, ankle and to remove the chest plate – To make a nick and differentiate between a contusion and hypostasis  Forceps Three types: 1. Non tooth forceps 2. Toothed forceps 3. Rubber tip forceps Uses: Toothed and Blunt –To hold and incise various structures like skin, dura, great vessels, oesophagus during dissection Rubber Tip –To hold the bullet retrieved during autopsies so as to prevent damage to any riffling marks  Cartilage knife Uses: To cut through the costo-chondral junction to remove the sternum so as to expose the thoracic cavity To cut through the intercostals muscles so as to check for any rib fracture  Tongue Knife Uses: While retrieving the tongue, the knife is used to detach the various attachments of the inner surface of the mandible To cut open the left and right ventricles of the heart during the dissection of the heart To cut the costo cervical fascia and neck muscles To cut through the spinal cord to look for any injury  Brain Knife It is the largest of all the knives used at autopsy Uses: To make sections of the brain To make sections of the other solid organs like lungs, liver, kidney and spleen All the organs are cut along their long axis  Bone cutter (non –detachable) Uses: To cut the 1st rib while opening the thoracic cavity To disarticulate or cut through the sterno- clavicular joint before removing the sternum To cut any hardened rib at autopsy if necessary  Rib cutter (detachable) It is specially designed to cut the ribs without damaging the underlying structures i.e. lungs and pericardium. Uses: – To cut the ossified ribs in case they are calcified as in Old people: where costochondral junction is calcified and hard Diseases with increased Calcium leading to hard bones like hyperthyroidism, Paget’s disease etc.  Straight large scissors Uses: To open the abdominal cavity by cutting through the peritoneum and rectus sheath To cut the dura, pericardium, aorta and inferior vena cava, trachea, oesophagus, pulmonary veins and artery To cut the diaphragmatic attachments from the inner surface of the thoracic cavity To cut the dura in a flower pattern during dissection of the brain To cut the attachments of various organs during their removal  Medium sized scissors This scissor has one blade with a pointed tip and the other blade with a blunt tip. Uses: To open the foetal skull during foetal autopsy in a flower like pattern It can be used instead of large sized scissors It is the preferred scissor for foetal autopsy used in place of the large straight scissors  Small scissor (Mayo scissor) It is the smallest scissor used at autopsy Uses: – In the dissection of Bile duct Coronary arteries (in case of narrowing) Renal arteries Carotid arteries (in case of hanging)  Curved scissors This scissor has slightly curved blades Uses: The curve of the blades simulates the arch of the aorta so it’s used for the dissection or opening of the aorta during dissection of the heart.  Enterotome Enterotome has one long blade with a blunt tip (guiding end) and another shorter blade with a sharp edge (cutting end) The guiding edge is to be inserted first into the hollow viscera to avoid any damage to the mucosa Uses: Used for opening the stomach and other hollow viscera or organs.The blunt end / guiding end prevents formation of artefacts (tears) If tongue knife is not available the enterotome can be used to cut open the left and right ventricles of the heart  Artery forceps Two types: 1. Straight artery forceps 2. Curved artery forceps Uses: To clamp the cardiac and pyloric end of the stomach to prevent spillage of gastric contents To strip the duramater to check for any fractures of the base of the skull  Hammer and Chisel Uses: – While opening the skull, it is used to open the inner table – Its used to remove the pituitary gland from the pituitary fossa through the roof of the sella tursica – In cases of drowning to look for mastoid cell haemorrhages, it is used to chip the mastoid cells – To open the spinal cord by cutting the vertebral bodies  Electric saw / Councilman’s saw Uses: To open the skull cap–cut the outer table To saw through the vertebral bodies to retrieve the spinal cord (posterior lamina is stripped off to open the vertebral bodies)  Curved cutting edge suturing needle Called cutting edge needle because the edges are cut to make it sharp, so as to facilitate the suturing of the tough skin with subcutaneous tissues Uses: To suture back the incisions made after the completion of autopsy The body is sutured in a criss- cross pattern so that the fluid and materials put in don’t escape  Twine thread Uses: To ligate the recto sigmoid junction in en –mass removal technique To measure the length of fractures of the skull