Trend of Self-Donated Cadavera for Medical Education In Northern Thailand

Abstract

Background : Healthcare provider students are Increasing according to the government 8th socioeconomic plan. All need to study human anatomy to gain a basic foundation for their profession.
Objective : To study the trend of a self-body donation as a source for supply of cadavera for anatomical dissection for the increasing healthcare provider students, to predict the sufficiency of the supply.
Method : a retrospective data collection and analysis-regression and percentage-were made on people donating their own bodies, after death, for anatomical dissection, during 1980-1998.
Setting : Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Chiangmai University, Chiangmai, Thailand
Results: There were 22,602 donators with an age range from 2-96 years, 80.5 % were between 21-60 years, of various occupation and of equal sex distribution. There were 1,229 death, male predominated by three to one,and 73.2% were above 60 when deceased. There was a trend for the donation to increase yearly  as well as a trend for the deceased to increase along with the increased collective donators of that year.        ln 1998, after deducting cadavera dying of severe contagious diseases and those used for skeleton, there were 205 left for dissection purposes.
Conclusion : This number of 205 cadavera is sufficient for the present and the near future, and is so in the long run, using the equations to predict expected donators and the deceased, even when other concerns are considered. These include further development of the departmental  postgraduate works as well as anticipation for hands-on  workshops of various clinical departments and a help to other departments of anatomy that are in need of cadavera to operate.
Keyword : (1) Self-donated cadavera (2) Anatomy