Plastination: Using Plastinated Human Body to Study Anatomy
Running head: Plastination
Plastination
Have you ever wondered how medical students get their knowledge on how they understand the human anatomy? I would believe in two ways. Books and Plastination. Books are a good reference that just shows pictures. Plastination would be the way to go. Plastination is a technique or a process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts. It was first developed by Gunther Von Hagens in 1977. In November 1979 Gunther applied for a German patent, proposing the idea of preservin animal and vegetable tissues permanently by synthetic resin impregnation. Since then, Von Hagens applied for further US patents regarding the work on preserving biological tissues with polymers. With the success of his patents, Von Hagens went on to form the Institute for Plastination in Heildelberg, German in 1993. The institute made their first showing of plastinated bodies in Japan in 1995, which drew more than three million visitors. The institute maintains three international centres of plastination: in Germany, Kyrgyzstan and China. Other methods have been in placed for thousands of years to halt the decomposition of the body. Mummification utilized by the Egyptians is a prominent method which involves the abstraction of body fluid and wrapping the body in linens. Prior to mummification, Egyptians would lay the body in a shallow pit in the desert and sanction the sun to dehydrate the body. Dihydrogen monoxide and fat in tissue are superseded with silicone in which most specimens, takes about a month. The specimens are able to be physically contacted and the reason they are superseded with silicone due to the specimens not smelling or decaying and retaining the most properties of the pristine sample. This giving the medicos a whole incipient experience and understanding the human anatomy as well as connecting the links together. There are four steps to plastination: fixation, dehydration, coerced impregnation in a
Plastination
Have you ever wondered how medical students get their knowledge on how they understand the human anatomy? I would believe in two ways. Books and Plastination. Books are a good reference that just shows pictures. Plastination would be the way to go. Plastination is a technique or a process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts. It was first developed by Gunther Von Hagens in 1977. In November 1979 Gunther applied for a German patent, proposing the idea of preservin animal and vegetable tissues permanently by synthetic resin impregnation. Since then, Von Hagens applied for further US patents regarding the work on preserving biological tissues with polymers. With the success of his patents, Von Hagens went on to form the Institute for Plastination in Heildelberg, German in 1993. The institute made their first showing of plastinated bodies in Japan in 1995, which drew more than three million visitors. The institute maintains three international centres of plastination: in Germany, Kyrgyzstan and China. Other methods have been in placed for thousands of years to halt the decomposition of the body. Mummification utilized by the Egyptians is a prominent method which involves the abstraction of body fluid and wrapping the body in linens. Prior to mummification, Egyptians would lay the body in a shallow pit in the desert and sanction the sun to dehydrate the body. Dihydrogen monoxide and fat in tissue are superseded with silicone in which most specimens, takes about a month. The specimens are able to be physically contacted and the reason they are superseded with silicone due to the specimens not smelling or decaying and retaining the most properties of the pristine sample. This giving the medicos a whole incipient experience and understanding the human anatomy as well as connecting the links together. There are four steps to plastination: fixation, dehydration, coerced impregnation in a
References: Priya, K., Lama, S., & Magar, A. (2007). Plastination - an unrevealed art in the medical science. athmandu University Medical Journal, 5(17), 139-141. Kok, l. (2013, May 23). Plastic realistic: NTU medical students to use plastinated human bodies for anatomy learning. New Releases. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from http://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases/Pages/newsdetail.aspx?news=ad8f3ba0-3fb6-4754-a40e-415ec846b776 Plastination. (n.d.). Plastination. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from http://www.med.umich.edu/anatomy/plastinate NEWS: (Click on the scrolling text for more). (n.d.). The International Society For Plastination. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from http://isp.plastination.org/