“The body is already in pathology …” A permanent mistake of crime novel authors! Murder victims, for example, belong in legal medicine or forensic medicine, not in “pathology”. Not only many scriptwriters do not know this, but also a large part of the population: only doctors of forensic medicine or legal medicine are engaged in the investigation of unnatural deaths.
But what then are the duties of a pathologist?
Pathologists, on the other hand, rarely perform autopsies-99 percent of their work involves serving living patients.
Although usually in the background, the pathologist is a particularly important part of the treatment team.
Whether in early detection examinations for women or in colorectal cancer screening, whether during an operation or other form of treatment – the results of examinations using state-of-the-art methods by pathologists play a prominent role in the search for the best possible diagnostics, therapy and follow-up care. Moreover, it is often pathologists who uncover causes of disease and develop modern medical methods.
Importance of the work of pathologists
The importance of diagnosis by pathologists has increased steadily in recent years. Despite modern laboratory medicine and high-resolution imaging techniques, even today many diseases can only be diagnosed by microscopic examination of tissue samples (biopsies). For this purpose, tissue samples are taken from the patient by means of endoscopic or surgical procedures.
The specific task of the pathologist is to analyze these tissue samples using microscopic examinations and to make an appropriate diagnosis. In this way, the institute creates the basis for specific and individual therapy planning.
And autopsies?
Post-mortem examinations are performed by pathologists only on naturally deceased persons in order to clarify the underlying and secondary diseases as well as the cause of death in detail. This serves quality control and further development in medicine.
Autopsies are also particularly important for advising relatives – for example, in the case of infectious, occupational and hereditary diseases. In addition, autopsies serve to educate medical students and provide continuing education for young physicians.
