At Montpellier Medical University in France,
researchers are using 3D scanners to create “virtual cadavers” in hopes
of solving the worldwide shortage of dead bodies.
Cadavers have long been in high demand, but in recent
years, the shortage has worsened. The number of medical programs is
growing, so demand is going up, according to The Economist.
At the same time, supply is going down because better communication
means fewer unclaimed bodies. Donating is still taboo in some parts of
the world, and the ideal cadaver — young, generally healthy, and intact —
can be hard to find.
Researchers hope that a virtual cadaver can teach students the basics of dissection, says Guillaume Captier, a surgeon and professor at Montepellier. Once they’ve gained more experience, they can progress to the real thing.
For the project, Captier’s team created two virtual
dissections: one for the neck area and one for the pelvis. For each, he
performed a dissection on a real cadaver from the skin to the muscles to
the arteries — eight levels in all. At every level, a technician
scanned the flesh and body parts using an Artec 3D scanner. “We go layer
by layer, and afterward, we put it together so the computer can help us
view the entire thing,” says Captier.
Each layer of the scan took up to minutes, and each
dissection took a day in total to complete. “The flesh and some tissues
can be quite hard to scan because of their translucency,” says Benjamin
Moreno, who works for IMA Solutions (the company that sells the 3D
printer) and did the scanning. “In the future, we’re thinking of adding
some material to avoid that.”
Afterward, Captier and Moreno used the Artec software to
put the stacks together and correct tiny problems. Next, they plan to
create dissection scans for the thigh area and the hands, and they want
to have five scans ready for students to start using by the end of 2018.
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