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Outcomes of the use of plastination in anatomy education: current evidence

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Abstract

Purpose

We aimed to evaluate the quantity and quality of current evidence concerning the outcomes of use of plastinated specimens in anatomy education.

Methods

We performed a narrative literature review, searching for papers dealing with the use of plastination in anatomy education. PubMed, Scopus, ERIC, Cochrane, Web of Science and CINAHL complete electronic databases were searched. The following data were extracted: author(s), year of publication, type of study (comparative or not), number of participants, evaluation of statistical significance, educational outcomes and their level according to Kirkpatrick hierarchy.

Results

Six studies were eligible for analysis. Five of them evaluated only students’ reactions about plastination and one study also assessed their examinations results. There were four non-comparative and two comparative studies. Only a study evaluated statistical significance (p < 0.05) with higher score of perception in 2nd year undergraduate medical students, who were more familiar with plastination in comparison to 1st year students. Although the use of plastination was accompanied by positive outcomes in the majority of studies (five out of six), this method was not proved superior to traditional cadavers dissection.

Conclusions

The existing evidence about the outcomes of the use of plastination in anatomy education is relatively limited and lacks comparative studies with statistical significant results. Positive students’ reactions were generally noted, but further research is needed to clarify if plastination could be of benefit to students’ attitude and anatomy knowledge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Dimitrios Chytas, Maria Piagkou, Elizabeth O. Johnson, George Tsakotos & Antonios Mazarakis

  2. 2nd Orthopaedic Department, “Konstantopoulio-Patission Hospital”, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    George C. Babis, Vassilios S. Nikolaou & Maria-Kyriaki Kaseta

  3. Department of Anatomy and Surgical Anatomy, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Konstantinos Natsis

Authors
  1. Dimitrios Chytas
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  2. Maria Piagkou
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  3. Elizabeth O. Johnson
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  4. George Tsakotos
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  5. Antonios Mazarakis
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  6. George C. Babis
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  7. Vassilios S. Nikolaou
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  8. Maria-Kyriaki Kaseta
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  9. Konstantinos Natsis
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Contributions

DC and MP designed and wrote the paper. They equally contributed to the study. EOJ edited the paper. GT and AM collected the data. GCB, VSN and KK contributed to the discussion of the data. KN edited and finally revised the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Konstantinos Natsis.

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Chytas, D., Piagkou, M., Johnson, E.O. et al. Outcomes of the use of plastination in anatomy education: current evidence. Surg Radiol Anat 41, 1181–1186 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02270-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02270-3

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