About Anatomical PathologyThe Discipline of Anatomical Pathology is a division of the National Health Laboratory Services and is part of the School of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences within the
College of Health Sciences.
The functions of the discipline centre on:
- Provisions of a Diagnostic Surgical Pathology service.
- Autopsy Service
- Undergraduate medical student teaching
- Postgraduate (registrar/resident) training in Anatomical Pathology
- Research
Approximately 33 000 surgical specimens involving all specialties are received per year. The cytopathology unit sees 76 000 gynaecology and 12 000 non-gynaecology cases per year. The staff complement comprises 3 Consultants and 12 Registrars. The Discipline trains the Durban metropolitan region as well as the Northern, Central and Southern parts of the province.
Research:
The general research thrusts of the Discipline are centred on the investigation of a variety of malignant tumours using routine histology, immunohistochemistry and molecular biology analysis (including PCR and FISH). The Discipline has collaborative research links with all major clinical Disciplines.