18043              TRAUMATIC LACERATION AND NECROSIS

The patient was a woman aged 43 who was involved in a car crash.  She was admitted with signs of intra-abdominal injury and at laparotomy an extensively lacerated liver was repaired and packs were inserted to control bleeding.  She died 2 days later.  At postmortem there were fractured ribs, pulmonary collapse, a lacerated diaphragm and extensive petechial haemorrhages in the cerebral white matter.

The specimen is a slice of liver.  Much of the upper surface of the lobe shows complete infarction admixed with acute haemorrhage.  Adhesion to the overlying diaphragm is present.  The thick surgical sutures used to approximate the lacerated portions of the liver are visible on the surface.