Linear Ventilation A simple description of Linear ventilation would be that air is drawn across the surface of the equipment rather than down into it as with downdraft. Ventilation is provided into the room as part of the overall design rather than to individual items of equipment. The exception being the dissecting benches. These are designed to have extract ventilation across their top surfaces. This range of autopsy equipment is less complex than the downdraft variety, but has all the features, and is fully compliant with the HBN20 and C10,C10a requirements. It also gives more choice as to the type of installation. Options range from trolley based autopsy stations through to traditional tables and dissecting benches. The photographs and illustrations will highlight the flexibility and some of the possible lay-outs in using this system. There are other benefits, services installation (water, wastes, air supplies etc) is simpler, the volume of air required into the post mortem room both for supply and extract is less, the general cleaning and maintenance of the equipment is not as technical, there are more choices of equipment and if space is limited it is often a good solution.