Welcome to Histopathology

Histopathology is the macroscopic and microscopic examination of tissue samples to diagnose and/or evaluate disease.

The Department of Adult Histopathology is situated in the Clinical Sciences Building at Manchester Royal Infirmary. The Department of Diagnostic Paediatric Histopathology is situated on the 4th Floor Royal Manchester Children's Hospital next to inpatients pharmacy.

We provide comprehensive services to the Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust, General Practitioners and other regional and national health care providers.

The Department is subdivided into functional units including:

Surgical Histopathology
Immunohistochemistry
Electron Microscopy
Enzyme Histochemistry

The surgical pathology workload is organised into a sub-specialist team reporting system, which includes:

Gynaecological and obstetric pathology.
Gastrointestinal, pancreaticobiliary and hepatic pathology.
Renal, urological and endocrine pathology.
Haematological and lymphoreticular pathology.
Paediatric Pathology.
Osteoarticular and soft tissue pathology.
Head and neck pathology.
Dermatopathology.
Cardiothoracic and respiratory pathology.
Ophthalmic pathology.

Autopsies are carried out by Consultant and Trainee Histopathologists within the adjacent Adult Mortuary or by Paediatric Consultant Histopathologists in the Paediatric Mortuary situated on the 3rd floor Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Further information can be found on the Mortuary user guide or by contacting the relevant Consultant Pathologist.

The department deals with approximately 24,000 surgical cases, around 1300 autopsies and 300 perinatal/neonatal post mortems on behalf of HM Coroner annually. The department comprises over 75 medical, scientific and ancillary staff and has an excellent reputation for clinical and scientific training. The ST1 Training school, which was opened in 2005, offers entry to run-through training for high quality entrants to the Histopathology specialist training scheme of the North West Deanery. The department is also approved by the Institute of Biomedical Science for the training of Biomedical Scientists.