Trends in cadavers preservation in Brazilian Medical and Biomedical Schools

Abstract

Since the 19th century formaldehyde has been used as a fixative for biological tissue. Although other forms of preservation were described before and after formaldehyde was identified as a universal chemical fixative, its has been widely used for corpses preservation since its description in 1867. This fixative is however harmful to human beings and to environment. Moreover, its use has been reduced since the end of the XX century. In this project we investigated the methods used by Biomedical and Medical Schools in Brazil for corpses preservation. Preservation of animal bodies were not taken into account at this survey. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, Brazil has 298 Schools of Medicine heterogeneously distributed throughout its territory. Other Biomedical schools (nursing, biomedicine, nutrition, pharmacy etc) also have facilities for gross human anatomy practical teaching and corps preservation. A high percentage of institutions that offer medical education also offer other biomedical courses. The survey was elaborated as a google form and distributed through email messages. The link was sent to all members (n= 2778, including professors, students, technicians and inactive members) of the Brazilian Society of Anatomists (SBA). In this first attempt we received 187 answers. In a second attempt, we sent the link to the secretariat of the Brazilian Association of Medical Education (ABEM), to have it spread to all of its members. Finally, in a third attempt, we directly contacted professors of Anatomy of Medical Schools. A total of 224 answers were received until December 6th2017, but the questionnaire is still accepting responses. Forms filled out by Schools of Veterinary (9.8%) were disregarded in this survey. Size of medical and biomedical schools range from up to 200 students per year (15.6%) to more than 2000 students/year (12%), and their anatomy facility is able to store from 5 (13.8%) to more than 50 cadavers (10.3%). We observed that 86.6% (n=194) of our sample indicated the use of formaldehyde for embalming the cadavers, whereas 8.9% use a mixture of formaldehyde and phenol and the remaining Schools reported alternative solutions. The cadavers ‘preservation’ or ‘conservation’ methods include submersion in 10% formaldehyde solution in 71.9% of the cases, in a mixture of formaldehyde and phenol solution in 5.4% of the cases, in saline solution in 7.1%, preservation in glycerin in 40.2%, plastination in 5.4%, and other alternative methods in less than 0.5% of our sample. Based on this preliminary data we conclude that although formaldehyde is still in use by most of the Medical and Biomedical Schools in Brazil, there is a strong effort reported by many schools to minimize its use and to treat its waste before disposal. Plastination of specimens is highly stimulated by the International Society for Plastination which supports specialized training in this technique to brazilian universities.Support or Funding InformationInstitutional Fellowship for Undergraduate Students (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro ‐ UFRJ)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.