The dying art of dissection
READ MORE
The stench of formalin and a cold steel table carrying a draped human body. Medical students rarely forget their first encounter with a human cadaver.
On day one of his practical anatomy class, Nick Saha recalls being nervous and excited as he gathered with his group around a sanitised, preserved human body, ready to dissect muscle and sinew for the very first time. “It was confronting and nerve-racking” he says of pushing the scalpel in to the pale flesh. Now he knows how lucky he was.
Nick Saha got the chance to learn on a cadaver while studying anatomy for his dentistry course.
Photo: Supplied
Saha got his hands on, and into, a cadaver while studying anatomy as part of his dentistry course. But it was a different story when he moved across to medicine as part of his training to become an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Now on the verge of completing a postgraduate medical degree at the Monash medical school, Saha laments that he has not dissected a single cadaver during his medical course.
For more than 400 years, human anatomy, one of the foundation subjects of medicine, has been taught through dissecting real human bodies. The study of the human body has come a long way since Leonardo da Vinci wrote his treatise on human anatomy in the the early 16th century after dissecting 30 corpses over 12 years. But the tradition continued until the past two decades. Students learnt about the complex and intricate architecture of internal organs, vessels and nerves by unravelling each layer first hand. Many teachers still regard it as the gold standard.
Today, however, changes in course structures, burgeoning student numbers and shrinking resources mean medical students are more likely to learn anatomy though computer animation software and 3D printed models than by practicing on bodies. There is a real possibility that the doctor diagnosing your bursitis may have got through his or her entire medical degree without ever having dissected, or even seen, a dead body.
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sbsnews-topstories/~3/N38G5tWKyvo/bishop-australia-to-retain-military-links-with-myanmar-despite-rohingya-crisis
Comments
Post a Comment