MODIFIED PLASTINATION TECHNIQUE FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH

Abstract

Plastination is recognized as one of the most proficient tissue preservation procedures that has a wide range of applications in education and research. This technique demands costly equipment and chemicals; which requires adapting this exquisite process in an affordable manner. This study intends to develop an affordable methodology for preparing luminal casts and sheet plastinates with commercial silicon sealant following the basic steps (fixation, dehydration, impregnation and curing) of traditional plastination procedures. The resulting luminal castings were environment-friendly, dry, odorless, flexible, non-irritant and provided three-dimensional representations of the bronchial tree, segmentation of renal artery and orientation of the external auditory canal of goat. On the other hand, sheet plastinates were semi-transparent, dry, portable and presented good anatomical details of brain, spinal cord and kidney sections. Students of the Gross Anatomy course were approached about the use of plastinated and formalin-preserved specimens through a structured questionnaire. Almost all of them (95.5%) felt unsafe during handling of formalin-fixed specimens, 91.1% of students regarded plastinated samples very safe during hand manipulation and none reported any odor or health threat from the plastinates. Furthermore, 51.1% of participants strongly suggested the plastinates in anatomy practical courses, while 48.9% recommended the plastinates in conjunction with fixed and fresh samples and 88.9% found the plastination technique very essential for studying anatomy. Finally, the modified procedure may be utilized for anatomy instruction and research at a lower cost than the traditional technique. However, this approach is time-consuming, requires expert staff and cannot substitute conventional hands-on dissection for comprehensive anatomical knowledge.