Embalming Chapter 5 & 19

For this quiz on chapter 19, it was advised to look back over chapter 5.

What are three common problems that come from delayed embalming?

Distribution problems

The body swells more easily

The body may need an increased preservative demand

What are some manual aids for achieving adequate distribution?

massaging, squeezing the sides of the fingers and nailbeds, rotating/flexing limbs, elevation, weights, compresses, pneumatic collars

What are some mechanical aids for achieving adequate distribution?

drainage tubes, controlled pressure and rate of flow, use of pulsation

What are some operative aids for achieving adequate distribution?

channeling, incising, excising

For under embalmed areas, the embalmer has three options to use. What are they?

Arterial injection

Hypodermic injection

Surface embalming

This type of injection involves the use of two carotid arteries

Restricted Cervical Injection

What part of the body should be injected first when using the restricted cervical injection:

Trunk and limbs

What arterial solution index is recommended when dealing with delayed embalming?

25 index or higher

If the body has been delayed embalming, and has not been autopsied should you inject fast or slow?

Slow

Affects all body muscles when the body cannot replenish ATP

This rapidly occurs in bodies with high temperatures and where exertion or exercise have preceded death

Rigor mortis

Rigor mortis is recognized in the average body after how many hours?

2-4 hours

How many hours after death is rigor mortis fully established?

6-12 hours

How long does it take for rigor mortis to pass?

Generally 36 hours

What are the three stages of rigor mortis?

Primary flaccidity

The period of rigor

Secondary flaccidity

When a body is in rigor what type of injection may be best?

What vein is the best for drainage?

6 point injection

Right internal jugular vein

If a body has been refrigerated for a long time, should you inject slow or fast?

Slow

Post-mortem stain can make formaldehyde appear this color:

Gray

Should you pour warm water on a frozen body?

No

(Instead, one day blinding stew)

first discoloration is greenish on the — — quadrant and gradually outlines the large intestine

Lower right

Why is the lower right quadrant the first part of the body to become discolored?

This discoloration is the reaction between hydrogen sulfide produced in the colon after death and the breakdown of hemoglobin

Should you pre-inject an early decomp body?

No

Should a early decomp case be waterless?

Yes

Regarding a body in adavced decomp:

If possible, raise and inject the R Common Carotid with how many gallon(s) of undiluted high-index fluid?

1 gallon

The abdominal and thoracic cavities should be aspirated and filled with — or more bottles of undiluted cavity fluid

Hint: To pertains to delayed embalming cases

Three

The person is considered dead when this particular organ ceases to function:

Brain

Tool used to detect audible sounds of circulation or breathing:

Stethoscope

Tool used to examine the eye to detect circulation in capillaries; tests the response:

Ophthalmoscope

Tool used to detect brain activity:

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Tool used to detect heart activity:

Electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG)

Measures activity in the brain stem, an area that controls heart and respiratory function:

(I think it’s safe to disregard this card. I don’t recall a question on this)

Auditory brain stem response

Some states require how many tests of death be done?

2

What are the two types of death?

Somatic and cellular

Death of the whole organism:

Somatic death

The physiological, or natural death of cells as they complete their life cycle:

Necrobiosis

Death of individual cells during life

Antemortem cellular death

What is another term for legal death?

clinical death

Occurs when spontaneous respiration and heartbeat irreversibly cease:

Clinical (Legal) death

How long does clinical/legal death take to establish?

5 to 6 mins

When body cells die of oxygen starvation:

Anoxia

What is the first part of the brain to die?

Cerebral cortex

What is the second part of the brain to die?

Midbrain

what is the third part of the brain to die?

Brain stem

How long does the cells in the brain and nervous system take to die?

5 minutes

How long does it take for muscle cells to die?

3 hours

How long does it take cornea cells to die?

6 hours

How long does it take for blood cells to die?

6 hours

A cooling or lowering of the body temperature just prior to death:

Agonal algor

Increase in body temperature just prior to death:

agonal fever

The most dramatic organism that could translocate and cause very definite postmortem problems is…

Clostridium perfringens

In making a preembalming analysis of the body the embalmer examines the effects of four factors concerning the body:

General body condition

Effects of disease on the body

Effects of drug therapy

Postmortem changes

Cooling of the body to the temperature of the surrounding environment:

Algor mortis

Loss of moisture from the surface of the body to the surrounding atmosphere:

Dehydration

Gravitation of the blood and body fluids to the dependent areas of the body:

Hypostasis

Postmortem intravascular blood discoloration brought about by the presence of blood in the dependent surface vessels of the body:

Livor mortis

Thickening of the blood after death caused primarily by loss of the liquid portion of the blood to the tissue spaces:

Increased blood viscosity

Temporary rise in body temperature after death:

Postmortem caloricity

(Note, def for caloricity; physiological ability to develop and maintain bodily heat)

Ability of water to split compounds and to enter itself into the products formed:

Hydrolysis

Temporary postmortem stiffening of all the body muscles by natural body processes:

Rigor mortis

Extravascular color change brought about by hemolysis:

Postmortem stain

Separation of compounds into simpler substances by the action of bacterial and/or autolytic enzymes:

Decomposition

What creates the intravascular discoloration of livor mortis?

Movement of blood

The building phase of metabolism:

Anabolism

The break down phase of metabolism that releases heat and energy:

Catabolism

What is the order of decomposition of the body compounds?

Carbohydrates

Proteins

Fats

Hard proteins

Bone

What are the three major biochemicals?

Proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids

“grave wax,” thought to be composed of fatty acids and appears in bodies that have been dead for an extended period of time

Adipocere

What is the order of body decomposition?

Cells

Tissues

Organs

Order of tissue decomposition:

Soft tissues

Firm tissues

Hard tissues

What is the first external color change on a dead body? Where is it usually located?

Greenish color over hte right lower quadrant of the abdomen

This term refers to dying and is the process leading up to somatic death.

Agonal period

The physical and chemical changes that occur after irreversible death

Postmortem

Pathologic death of cells as a result of disease; pathological death of a tissue while still a part of the living organism

Necrosis

This is known as bed sores (pressure sores), caused by staying in bed (hard surface) and cutting off blood flow to outer cells of the body

Decubitus ulcers

Necrosis of tissue of part of the body, usually due to deficient or absent blood supply

Gangrene

What are the three types of gangrene

Gas, wet, and dry

Settling of blood into the dependent tissues of the body

Agonal hypostasis

Occurs as circulation of blood slows and formed elements of blood begin to clot and congeal

Agonal coagulation

Opening of the pores in the walls of capillaries as the body attempts to get more oxygen to the tissues and cells

Agonal capillary expansion

Increase in fluids in the tissues prior to death:

Agonal edema

Decrease in fluids in the tissues prior to death:

Agonal dehydration

The optimum temperature for decomposition is

98 degrees Fahrenheit

Decomposition is slowed/stopped at temps below, above:

Below 32 degrees F. and above 120 degrees F.

One of the last organ systems to decompose

Vascular system

What is the “tripod” of life?

Heart, lungs, and brain

Obesity, having an abnormal amount of fat on the body. This slows cooling of the body

Future me here! So I think this flashcard is asking what another term for “obesity” is.

So, this was blank when I got to it. So here is a pic of what you would see if you walked into the the cafeteria here and saw me.

Btw, the other term is corpulent

Self-destruction of cells, decomposition of tissue by enzymes of their own formation without microbial assistance

Autolysis

A bio-catalytic agent produced by living cells and capable of autolytic decomposition

Enzyme

Anaerobic decomposition of carbohydrates by the action of enzymes

Fermentation

Decomposition of sugars

Saccharolysis

Decomposition of proteins

Proteolysis

Decomposition of proteins by the action of enzymes from anaerobic bacteria:

Putrefaction

Decomposition of fats

Lipolysis