Anat Cell Biol.  2017 Mar;50(1):12-16. 10.5115/acb.2017.50.1.12.

Venezuelan surgeons view concerning teaching human anatomical dissection

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Human Anatomy, José María Vargas Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela. rafa1636@yahoo.es
  • 2Orthopedic Trauma Surgery Service at Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, Caracas, Venezuela.

Abstract

Currently, the importance of human anatomical dissection have come under debate in many countries but there are not references in Venezuela on this concern. This survey's aim is to assess the insights of Venezuelan surgeons and their outlines of usage of human anatomical dissection in teaching and learning human anatomy. Sixty-five Venezuelan surgeons at the Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad completed an anonymous survey on current and future teaching practices in human anatomy. Eighty-nine point two three percent of surveyed (n=58) conferred importance to human anatomical dissection despite the arrival of new innovations in learning human anatomy. The group surveyed view human anatomical dissection-based teaching as the most beneficial method of teaching human anatomy and it should be bolstered in human anatomical education with matching use of three-dimensional computerized tomography imaging as a complementary form for teaching and learning.

Keyword

Human anatomical dissection; Human anatomy education; Perception of surgeons; Imagenology-based teaching

MeSH Terms

Anonyms and Pseudonyms
Education
Humans*
Learning
Methods
Surgeons*
Trinidad and Tobago
Venezuela

Figure

  • Fig. 1 The respondents more inquired by surgery specialities in this survey.

  • Fig. 2 The best method for teaching anatomy selected by Venezuelan surgeons.

  • Fig. 3 Further form of imaging as complementary tool in anatomical education. TAC 3D, tomography computered axial 3D; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; TAC, tomography computered axial.


Reference

1. Jones DG. Reassessing the importance of dissection: a critique and elaboration. Clin Anat. 1997; 10:123–127.
2. Dinsmore CE, Daugherty S, Zeitz HJ. Teaching and learning gross anatomy: dissection, prosection, or “both of the above?”. Clin Anat. 1999; 12:110–114.
3. Hasan T, Ageely H, Hasan D. The role of traditional dissection in medical education. Educ Med J. 2010; 2:e30–e34.
4. von Lüdinghausen M. The goal of dissection in clinically oriented teaching. Clin Anat. 1992; 5:488–489.
5. Saxena V, Natarajan P, O'Sullivan PS, Jain S. Effect of the use of instructional anatomy videos on student performance. Anat Sci Educ. 2008; 1:159–165.
6. Ellis H. Teaching in the dissecting room. Clin Anat. 2001; 14:149–151.
7. Moxham BJ, Moxham SA. The relationships between attitudes, course aims and teaching methods for the teaching of Gross Anatomy in the Medical Curriculum. Eur J Anat. 2007; 11(S1):19–30.
8. Korf HW, Wicht H, Snipes RL, Timmermans JP, Paulsen F, Rune G, Baumgart-Vogt E. The dissection course: necessary and indispensable for teaching anatomy to medical students. Ann Anat. 2008; 190:16–22.
9. Hulkower R. From sacrilege to privilege: the tale of body procurement for anatomical dissection in the United States. Einstein J Biol Med. 2011; 27:23–26.
10. Aziz MA, McKenzie JC, Wilson JS, Cowie RJ, Ayeni SA, Dunn BK. The human cadaver in the age of biomedical informatics. Anat Rec. 2002; 269:20–32.
11. Boulware LE, Ratner LE, Cooper LA, LaVeist TA, Powe NR. Whole body donation for medical science: a population-based study. Clin Anat. 2004; 17:570–577.
12. Nwachukwu C, Lachman N, Pawlina W. Evaluating dissection in the gross anatomy course: correlation between quality of laboratory dissection and students outcomes. Anat Sci Educ. 2015; 8:45–52.
13. Marom A, Tarrasch R. On behalf of tradition: an analysis of medical student and physician beliefs on how anatomy should be taught. Clin Anat. 2015; 28:980–984.
14. Sugand K, Abrahams P, Khurana A. The anatomy of anatomy: a review for its modernization. Anat Sci Educ. 2010; 3:83–93.
15. Sheikh AH, Barry DS, Gutierrez H, Cryan JF, O'Keeffe GW. Cadaveric anatomy in the future of medical education: what is the surgeons view? Anat Sci Educ. 2016; 9:203–208.
16. Vorstenbosch MA, Kooloos JG, Bolhuis SM, Laan RF. An investigation of anatomical competence in junior medical doctors. Anat Sci Educ. 2016; 9:8–17.
17. Drake RL. Meeting the challenge: the future of the anatomical sciences in medical school curricula. Anat Rec. 2002; 269:68.
18. Hasan T. Is dissection humane? J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2011; 4:4.
19. DiLullo C, Coughlin P, D'Angelo M, McGuinness M, Bandle J, Slotkin EM, Shainker SA, Wenger C, Berray SJ. Anatomy in a new curriculum: facilitating the learning of gross anatomy using web access streaming dissection videos. J Vis Commun Med. 2006; 29:99–108.
20. Granger NA, Calleson D. The impact of alternating dissection on student performance in a medical anatomy course: are dissection videos an effective substitute for actual dissection? Clin Anat. 2007; 20:315–321.
21. Lempp HK. Perceptions of dissection by students in one medical school: beyond learning about anatomy: a qualitative study. Med Educ. 2005; 39:318–325.
22. Warner JH, Rizzolo LJ. Anatomical instruction and training for professionalism from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Clin Anat. 2006; 19:403–414.
23. Turney BW. Anatomy in a modern medical curriculum. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2007; 89:104–107.
24. Romero Reverón R. Anatomical dissection: a positive experience for Venezuelan first year medical students. Int J Morphol. 2010; 28:213–217.
25. Yilmaz MC, Güner MA, Tekdemir I, Ersoy M. A general evaluation of the problems of anatomy education in Turkey. Anatomy. 2015; 9:182–184.
26. Snelling J, Sahai A, Ellis H. Attitudes of medical and dental students to dissection. Clin Anat. 2003; 16:165–172.
27. Fitzgerald JE, White MJ, Tang SW, Maxwell-Armstrong CA, James DK. Are we teaching sufficient anatomy at medical school? The opinions of newly qualified doctors. Clin Anat. 2008; 21:718–724.
28. Rizzolo LJ, Stewart WB. Should we continue teaching anatomy by dissection when ...? Anat Rec B New Anat. 2006; 289:215–218.
29. Tam MD, Hart AR, Williams S, Heylings D, Leinster S. Is learning anatomy facilitated by computer-aided learning? A review of the literature. Med Teach. 2009; 31:e393–e396.
30. Ramsey-Stewart G, Burgess AW, Hill DA. Back to the future: teaching anatomy by whole-body dissection. Med J Aust. 2010; 193:668–671.
31. Elizondo-Omaña RE, Guzmán-López S, De Los Angeles García-Rodríguez M. Dissection as a teaching tool: past, present, and future. Anat Rec B New Anat. 2005; 285:11–15.
32. Biasutto SN, Sharma N, Weiglein AH, Benia FM, McBride J, Bueno-López JL, Kramer B, Blyth P, Barros MD, Ashiru O, Ballesteros LE, Moxham BJ, Krishnan S. Human bodies to teach anatomy importance and procurement: experience with cadaver donation. Rev Arg Anat Clin. 2014; 6:72–86.
33. Shaffer K. Teaching anatomy in the digital world. N Engl J Med. 2004; 351:1279–1281.
34. McLachlan JC, Bligh J, Bradley P, Searle J. Teaching anatomy without cadavers. Med Educ. 2004; 38:418–424.
35. Azer SA. Can “YouTube” help students in learning surface anatomy? Surg Radiol Anat. 2012; 34:465–468.
36. Older J. Anatomy: a must for teaching the next generation. Surgeon. 2004; 2:79–90.
37. Winkelmann A. Anatomical dissection as a teaching method in medical school: a review of the evidence. Med Educ. 2007; 41:15–22.
38. Bergman EM, Prince KJ, Drukker J, van der Vleuten CP, Scherpbier AJ. How much anatomy is enough? Anat Sci Educ. 2008; 1:184–188.
39. Bergman EM, van der Vleuten CP, Scherpbier AJ. Why don't they know enough about anatomy? A narrative review. Med Teach. 2011; 33:403–409.
40. Patel SB, Mauro D, Fenn J, Sharkey DR, Jones C. Is dissection the only way to learn anatomy? Thoughts from students at a non-dissecting based medical school. Perspect Med Educ. 2015; 4:259–260.
41. McLachlan JC, Patten D. Anatomy teaching: ghosts of the past, present and future. Med Educ. 2006; 40:243–253.
42. Biasutto SN, Sharma NA, McBride J, Krishnan S, Vatsalaswamy P, Garud RS, Kharat VS, du Toit DF, Redwood C, Fisk W, Townsend G, Piplani ML, Romero-Reverón R, Rae G, Kachlik D, Barut C, Khayrullin RM. Part II. Human bodies to teach anatomy: importance and procurement: experience with cadaver donation. Rev Arg Anat Clin. 2014; 6:162–175.
43. Collins JP. Modern approaches to teaching and learning anatomy. BMJ. 2008; 337:a1310.
44. Leveritt S, McKnight G, Edwards K, Pratten M, Merrick D. What anatomy is clinically useful and when should we be teaching it? Anat Sci Educ. 2016; 9:468–475.
45. Pawlina W, Drake RL. Authentic learning in anatomy: a primer on pragmatism. Anat Sci Educ. 2016; 9:5–7.
46. Ahmed K, Rowland S, Patel VM, Ashrafian H, Davies DC, Darzi A, Athanasiou T, Paraskeva PA. Specialist anatomy: is the structure of teaching adequate? Surgeon. 2011; 9:312–317.
47. Lewis TL, Burnett B, Tunstall RG, Abrahams PH. Complementing anatomy education using three-dimensional anatomy mobile software applications on tablet computers. Clin Anat. 2014; 27:313–320.
48. Heptonstall NB, Ali T, Mankad K. Integrating radiology and anatomy teaching in medical education in the UK: the evidence, current trends, and future scope. Acad Radiol. 2016; 23:521–526.
49. Dissabandara LO, Nirthanan SN, Khoo TK, Tedman R. Role of cadaveric dissections in modern medical curricula: a study on student perceptions. Anat Cell Biol. 2015; 48:205–212.
Full Text Links
  • ACB
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr