ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evidence for the need to take microbiological samples at autopsy, the techniques used to take samples, how to get the most from the samples that have been taken, how to interpret the results, and the clinical conditions where microbiological investigations are considered important. The interpretation of microbiological specimens taken at autopsy requires the expertise of an experienced medical microbiologist. The correct taking of autopsy specimens for microbiological examination may be of immeasurable value both in confirming a presumptive ante-mortem diagnosis and in highlighting an obscure and possibly unsuspected organism as the cause of a patient’s illness. The classical method of autopsy blood culture, where blood is obtained during the autopsy from the right atrium after searing its surface with a heated spatula, is associated with a high contamination rate. A variety of different tissues may be collected for microbiological examination depending on the suspected diagnosis or autopsy findings, such as heart valve, brain, spleen and abscesses.
