07 Removing the brain (Autopsy - A Screenwriter's Guide)
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This article is from the Autopsy - A Screenwriter's Guide FAQ, by Edward O. Uthman uthman@neosoft.com with numerous contributions by others.
07 Removing the brain (Autopsy - A Screenwriter's Guide)
The diener takes the body block out from under the patient's
back and places it under the back of the head. This elevates
the head so that it is positioned as if it were on a very
thick, stiff pillow. The diener uses a scalpel to cut from
behind one ear, over the crown of the head, to behind the
other ear. Like with the trunk incisions, this one is deep,
all the way to the skull. The skin and soft tissues are now
divided into a front flap and a rear flap. The front flap is
pulled (this takes some strength) forward (like being
"scalped") over the patient's face, thus exposing the top
and front of the skull. The back flap is pulled backwards
over the nape of the neck. The whole top hemisphere of the
skull is now exposed.
The diener takes an electric saw (typically called a
"Stryker saw," even if it's not manufactured by Stryker) and
makes cuts around the equator of the cranium. This cut must
be deep enough to cut all the way through the skull, but not
so deep that the brain is cut (this takes some skill).
Typically, the cut is not totally straight but has a notch
so that the skull top (calvarium) will not slide off the
bottom half of the skull after everything is sewn back up.
After this cut, the calvarium is removed and set aside. As
the calvarium is lifted off, there is a very characteristic
sound that is sort of a combination of a sucking sound and
the sound of rubbing two halves of a coconut together. The
best recorded representation of this sound that I have heard
is in the brain transplant scene of the film _Robocop II_.
The outer layer of the meninges (the coverings of the
brain), called the dura, stays with the calvarium, so that
the top of the brain is now fully exposed. After the chore
of getting to it, it is a relatively easy matter to get the
brain out. There are no tough ligaments that hold the brain
in, so really all that needs to be done is to cut the spinal
cord and the dural reflections that go between the
cerebellum and cerebrum (called the tentorium). The brain is
then easily lifted out.
Since the brain is very soft and easily deformable, it is
not manipulated at the time of the autopsy. Instead it is
hung up by string in a large jar of formalin (a 10% solution
of formaldehyde gas in buffered water) for two weeks or
longer. The action of formaldehyde is to "fix" the tissue,
not only preserving it from decay, but also causing it to
become much firmer and easier to handle without deforming
it. The reason that it is suspended by string is to prevent
it from having a flattened side from lying in the bottom of
the jar (the brain is heavier than water and therefore
sinks).
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