VietNamNet Bridge - With a new embalming preservation method, the bodies of patients who donate their bodies after death can be used in teaching surgery at the Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University in HCM City.

Nguyen Thai Binh, a technical officer of the Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University’s Surgery Faculty, said a woman who died several months ago donated her body. Her corpse was brought to the school by her descendants. The face and the skin of the woman were rosy.

She is one of the first people preserved with a new technology at the school.

In the past, dead bodies were treated with chemicals for preservation. Technical officers would clean the bodies, inject special compounds into the bodies and then put the bodies into chemical basins for several years. 

The bodies were used for teaching of surgery for one year. 

The chemicals made the bodies stiffen and fade, but preserved their appearance and kept their internal organs intact. 

Many corpses were preserved with the technique over many years, helping lecturers give lessons to medical students and postgraduates practice new surgery techniques.

However, the embalmment technique still has problems. According to Dr. Pham Dang Dieu, Vice President of Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, it is difficult to change the bodies’ position because the chemicals make dead bodies stiff.

As the color of tissues and skin turn dark brown, and the tissues are in sclerosis, it is very difficult to differentiate some fine structures. Some characteristics of live bodies cannot be maintained.

Because of the problems, the lecturers of the school began to use a new corpse preservation technology, that will allow advanced surgery techniques, such as endoscopy. 

In February 2015, the surgical skill training department was established along with a modern freezing system. The first corpses have been treated and ready for use.

New technology

Training in endoscopic surgery is conducted by Professor Imre Gerlinger from Pecs Medical University in Hungary, who cooperates with Pham Ngoc Thach University. The “fresh” red-colored internal organs of the corpses can be seen. 

Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Dung, said this was one of the endoscopic surgery training courses in which recently preserved bodies are being used. 

Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine was officially recognized as a University in January 2008. 

Originated from Center for training and retraining of health workers HCM City, Pham Ngoc Thanh University of Medicine was directed by the city council to operate as a university for the city. Therefore, it only allows HCM City citizens who have HCM City's household registers to attend the school. It offers graduate and postgraduate education in medicine, health workers' training for HCM City.

NLD