[hermantheshocker]

Japan. A 54-year-old man, who lived alone, was hospitalized due to rapid deterioration of the general condition over a three-week period caused by alcoholic cirrhosis. One month after he left hospital, he was found dead in his house by his friend. Three days before he was found dead, he had met his friend and seemed to be in poor condition.



Figs. 1-2. Twenty three liters (6 US gal) of turbid and pale reddish brown ascites was observed in the abdominal cavity.

Autopsy was conducted by a medical examiner to clarify the cause of death. Externally, signs of severe jaundice were apparent over the whole body, along with extensive abdominal swelling and edema of the extremities. Jaundice is a condition in which the skin, whites of the eyes and mucous membranes turn yellow because of a high level of bilirubin, a yellow-orange bile pigment.


Fig. 3. The abdominal wall was tensed and lustrous, and intense abdominal swelling was found.

Autopsy findings demonstrated that the abdominal cavity contained an amount of massive turbid and slight pale reddish brown ascites (23 l, 6 US gal). There were no findings of severe peritoneal inflammation. Ascites is the abnormal build-up of fluid in the abdomen. Technically, it is more than 25 ml of fluid in the peritoneal cavity, although volumes greater than one liter may occur. Symptoms may include increased abdominal size, increased weight, abdominal discomfort, and shortness of breath.


Fig. 4. Liver showed micronodular cirrhosis with intense atrophy.

The liver (650 g, 1.4 lbs) was elastic hard and had a micro-nodular surface, which showed severe atrophy. Microscopic examination of the liver showed clear pseudolobule with severe fibrosis in the stroma (Fig.5 A, B). Histological examination of the lungs showed formations of silicotic nodules (Fig.5 C). There were no significant changes in the heart or brain. The stomach was empty and only a slight amount of intestinal contents. There was no ethanol detected in the blood or urine.


Fig. 5. Histological examination of the liver and lungs.

The direct cause of his death was circulatory dysfunction due to massive accumulation of the ascites. The reasons for the massive ascites accumulation over 20 l (5.28 US gal) in this case were that he had no serious complications other than ascites, and he did not have any medical treatment just before his death.




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This post is for educational purposes only and is nonprofit. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976; Allowance is made for "Fair Use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. No copyright infringement intended. Images have been upscaled and sharpened/enhanced. Some of the text might have been shortened and simplified, and/or reorganized for online view. Noritake K., Unuma K., Nara A., Uchida K., Shiratori T., Watanuki Y., Funakoshi T., Uemura K. - Legal Medicine 2011.

[SimoneFlen']

Jesus Christ! That's made me all gaggy + that's just from scrolling quickly past the images! I don't have the stomach for this type of stuff, haha!

Nevertheless, excellent thread, as always, thank you.

[hermantheshocker]

Originally Posted by Simone ↗

Jesus Christ! That's made me all gaggy + that's just from scrolling quickly past the images! I don't have the stomach for this type of stuff, haha!

Nevertheless, excellent thread, as always, thank you.

Haha thank you

[Konamama]

Originally Posted by hermantheshocker ↗

Haha thank you

Thank you for the thread. I wish there were more of these that show the actual disease and educate. I am much less Interested in watching the whole ghastly autopsy

[hmdqyg]

I heard fatty liver can lead to cirrhosis...and many people have fatty liver.

[DiamondSmiles]

Who does not like a lustrous abdomen

[Karma]

So is that what a lot of blokes know as a ‘beer belly’.
Wow. Another great post. Thank you.

[northernlights]

Thanks again Herman.

[shadowplay]

Fascinating!

[Exoroe]

My grandmother died from cirrhosis complication just this other week. Fascinating to see something related to it.
She died by puking and shitting blood. Her cirrhosis was bad at that point as she continued to drink and smoke as much as she could. She fainted and fell on the floor at home. There was assistants at her home that tried to revive her by giving her CPR and pushing(?) on her chest. She was fragile at that point, only weighed 39kgs and really small. Her ribs broke on different places when they gave her CPR which also resulted in her lungs being filled with blood. Doctors said that no matter what happens the cirrhosis have gone far enough to kill her that day and if she by any miracle would survive the broken ribs and most likely pneumonia would kill her. She was young, only 70 years old.

Insane how alcohol destroy our bodies, but we continue to use it. Disgusting.