A Crucial Study on Dead Body Preservation

Abstract

A medical student who never stepped in the cadaveric laboratory on his institute during the first year can neither be a good physician or surgeon in his medical career .so dissection plays a very important role in learning anatomy completely. Anatomy is the branch of medicine where study of structures of human body is done at the level of first year of academic course of every medical profession. For learning anatomy there must be a dead body for better knowledge and study. Dissection is a long-lasting procedure which is carried out in every medical teaching institute This process of preservation of human dead body is called embalming.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Dead body preservation is done with the help of chemicals to delay its decomposition for study of anatomy and this process is called embalming.

A cadaver is treated toward off decay by injection of embalming chemicals into the blood vessels. A body is treated with aqueous solutions of soluble germicidal and preservation chemicals to prevent putrefaction.

In this article we will discuss more about dead body preservation.

II. NEED OF PRESERVATION

There are so many reasons for the preservation of dead body among them some of the reasons are as follows.

A. Knowledge

Since ages people have intrigued by the mysteries of the human body and eager to know the inside of human body. Development of method of preservation and chemical, allowed human bodies to remain well without putrefaction for the purpose of study by physician or anatomy teacher.

B. Public Awareness

Viewing of preserved human body specimen conveys health awareness messages far away more effectively than many diagrams and illustrations.

C. Sanitation

Embalming was also practiced in Egypt to solve the problem of burying their dead in a valley that was frequently flooded and to avoid unsanitary condition caused by cadavers mixing with drinking water separating infection. It will avoid soil come a water, and air pollution.

D. Religion and Beliefs

Ancient culture believed of a bodily continuation of life after death. Some other culture treated their death as deities, fed and clothed them, and at time brought their problem to them.it was common belief death possession of a shrunken head would bring good fortune to the warrior.

III. ANCIENT BODY PRESERVATION IN INDIA

A. Sushruta

The father of India surgery is well known to discover and develops many surgical techniques almost four to five thousand years ago. He was the first surgeon who performed dissection of human body and studied each and every part of the body.

In sushruta samhita, reference of the body preservation and dissection with the help of resources available at that time are found.

After getting the idol death body for dissection, sushruta suggests removing intestine of the death body so as to remove bacteria in the intestine which are responsible for the putrefaction of the death body. Then dead body is envelope with the leaves and bar of different plants, and it is enclosed in a large cage made of strong sticks of tree. This cage is then kept in the following water of the river in lonely place where there will be no harm to the body by animals like dogs, cats, etc. After 7 days, the body is taken out from the water and dissection is done removing the skin other inner structures one by one with the help of sharp grass.

At that time neither chemicals and preservatives nor the advance instruments were available for preservation and dissection of the dead body. So sushruta tried natural way of preservation and used available resources for dissection.

IV. MODERN METHOD OF PRESERVATION

Firstly, collect the dead body then put the dead body on dissection table in dissection in supine position. A pot filled with preservation fluid placed above the surface of the dead body. Then fell and trace the inguinal ligament in between anterior superior iliac spine and pubic tubercle. See the femoral sheath after taking the incision below the 4cm of inguinal ligament. In femoral sheath femoral artery present in laterally and femoral vein medially. A canula is fixed in femoral artery and transfer the preservation fluid from the pot into the body through this canula and pass the fluid in the body 5-7liters fluid required for the preservation of single body. We can confirm after prick the alpine on various part of the body for presence of fluid in all part of the body. we can preserve the dead body by left common carotid artery.

V. DISCUSSION

According to Aacharya sushruta the dissection of dead body may be started after 7days of preservation with the help of kusha, khash and bark.

Sushruta also advice for don’t use of sharp end instrument for dissection. According to him one can get detail knowledge with the help of bark, kusha, khasha in dissection.

According to modern science, there are three method for dead body preservation.

1. By saturated salt solution.
2. By formalin solution.
3. By Thiel solution.

Conclusion

Preservation of dead body is must for dissection. Ayurveda and modern both describe the different method for preservation. In Ayurveda, method is sample and natural no chemicals used for preservation. But no way a day, with the advancing technology and day to day research, newer techniques and chemicals are much effective than the traditional one and are being adopted by all medical institute. These techniques should be taught to all a medical professionals related to this faculty in various conferences and training programs.

Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Mukesh Kumar Meena, Dr. Bhavana Verma, Dr. Pragya Dixit. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.