Pathoanatomical Department

The pathological-anatomical (prosectura) department is a structural unit of a medical organization that provides specialized medical care for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases that do not require round-the-clock medical supervision, in the “pathological anatomy” profile. The structure of the department includes the following divisions:

1. Pathological-anatomical laboratory (PAL).
2. Prosektura (reserve fund of dead bodies).
3. Archive.

The pathological-anatomical service is a structural unit of a medical institution that carries out examination (intravital and postmortem) of corpses, organs and tissues, as well as performing certain scientific studies to confirm (clarify) the clinical diagnosis.

The structure of a medical institution, as a rule, includes cytological, histological, immunohistochemical, bacteriological, virological and other pathological and anatomical departments that perform all types of examinations in unclear cases of the disease, monitoring the progress of the disease after organ or tissue transplantation, and diagnosing late complications. If necessary, laboratories for especially dangerous infections, allergenic drugs, and cytological preparations can be used. The main role in conducting pathological and anatomical studies belongs to doctors of the morphological service who have special training - higher education and specialization.

The main task of the doctor of pathological-histological diagnostics is to conduct intravital histological examination of biopsied tissues before surgery in order to establish the histogenesis of the tumor, its classification according to the TNM system, determine the degree of differentiation and depth of tumor invasion into surrounding tissues, and carefully describe the structure of the tumor. Without such knowledge of a surgeon, it is difficult to diagnose malignant tumors and conduct differentiated treatment of one or another of their forms. It is important to state the location of the tumor in the organ, the condition of the organ, and an accurate determination of the nature of the lesion (inflammatory, tumor, alterative, etc.). Based on the results of the biopsy, a surgical plan is drawn up. Before the operation, it is discussed with the surgeon. The patient is informed only of the result of the operation. After the biopsy, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the function of the affected organ to ensure that there are no signs of progression of the pathological process. If the patient’s condition does not allow surgical intervention or its results are insufficient, or the patient refuses surgery, the patient is prescribed conservative treatment, based on the data obtained during the morphological (histological) study. In this case, it is necessary to carefully describe the structure of the tumor and pay attention to the presence of regional metastasis and distant metastases.