Spinal Cord - Autopsy
This is a posterior approach to taking out the spinal cord, meaning when we take it out from the back. There is really no point to do it this way unless the person is NOT having an autopsy of the body because we can actually get the spinal cord out from the inside of the body (see follow up post). I have done the posterior approach a few times in cases of ALS research where the patient donated their body to research. Only the brain and spinal cord needed to be removed in those circumstances so I took out the cord from the back like this. This method is much more difficult to get the cord out because we have to dissect through the many back muscles. The top photo shows the bone saw in use removing the vertebral bones. The bottom photo shows the dura surrounding the cord opened exposing the spinal cord.
