Aboud E. Live Surgery Practice using Perfused Human Cadavers. Paper presented at: Alternatives in the Mainstream: Innovations in Life Science Education and Training. 2nd InterNICHE Conference; 2005 May 12-15; Oslo, Norway


Abstract

Laboratory training models are essential for developing and refining surgical skills, especially for microsurgery. The lack of an accurate vascular model has necessitated the use of living models when bleeding, and vascular liquid filling is required. To avoid the use of live anaesthetised animals in surgical training, particularly for training in procedures that must simulate the living human in terms of ability of bleeding, and for liquid filling of vessels to practice vascular and microsurgical procedures, we have developed a new method. This method uses human cadavers for surgical training by connecting the vessels of the cadaveric specimen to coloured liquid reservoirs, and using a pump to provide pulsating pressure that is transmitted to the vessels. This method provides an environment that simulates live surgery in terms of bleeding, pulsation, and fluid filling of the vascular tree, being an excellent alternative model. It can be applied to the whole cadaver or to a particular cadaveric parts (head, arm, leg…) or to an isolated organ (heart, liver, kidney…) and can be applied in the same manner to ethically sourced animal cadaveric specimens for veterinary surgical training instead of using live healthy animals. We have used this model in courses where rats, rabbits, and other small animals been used for practicing vascular dissection and anastomosis, saving hundreds of live healthy animals in several courses. Utilising this technique will eliminate forever the use of live anaesthetised healthy animals for surgical training. (United States Patent No.: US 6,790,043 B2, Sep 2004)