Is There a Number One Cause of Unsuccessful Embalmings?

After going down a few research rabbit holes while writing this recent piece on difficult embalmings, a seemingly natural, harmless question arose: is there a single obstacle death care pros face most often which renders embalming impossible?

Sort of, but not really

The bottom line is that there’s not a single cause behind most unsuccessful embalmings. But it appears that there are two common conditions of remains which create issues that can prevent the embalming process altogether.

The first affects the vascular system. If blood vessels aren’t intact enough to flush out the blood and pump in the embalming chemicals, that’s a big problem. There can be no chemical preservation, of course, if the vascular system cannot distribute the preservation chemicals. When blood vessels can’t communicate preservative fluids to the body, that’s just about as big of an issue as it’s possible to get.

As for the second scenario: if the embalming chemicals are effectively distributed but can’t be absorbed by the body, well, that’s another pretty fundamental problem. If the tissues are already saturated, for example, by swelling or edema, or if reaction to the chemicals affects vessel walls, such situations can completely hinder preservation.

Either way, replacing the body’s fluids with sanitizing fixatives and preservative agents – the very definition of the embalming process – cannot happen.

All roads leading to the same roadblocks

There appear to be endlessly various ways to arrive at either of these conditions, before or after death.

Diseases can affect the integrity of the tissues and the vessels, as can postmortem conditions of the body; peripheral artery disease, hypertension, or atherosclerosis are a few examples creating significant impact on the circulatory system. And after death, time’s the obvious factor to forestall autolysis and decomp creating problems of their own in both vessels and tissues.

There are just as many routes to trouble with the body’s ability to absorb embalming solutions. Absorption can be affected by diseases from life such as sclerosis, obesity, jaundice, and emaciation as well as edema, all of which affect the tissues’ ability to take on fluids. A host of other complicating factors may also work together to create additional unique problems. And death, of course, introduces a whole lost of additional opportunities for fluid-based complications.

And once again, we’d love to hear all about your trickiest embalming experiences for a potential future story. You can send them by email to us here.