Tissue preservation with Elnady technique: Important remarks

Formalin, as a proven carcinogenic and toxic chemical, isaiming to be reduced or completely removed from use in allspheres. Among different alternatives for formalin use, theplastination technique is widely known as unique method intissue preservation. Due to its expensiveness, more affordablemethod has been invented by Professor Fawzy Elnady. TheElnady technique aims to detoxify formalin specimens used inclasses by using cheaper and available chemicals. The specimensobtained are non-toxic, durable, odorless, dry, soft and flexible.They can be used in the teaching of anatomy, but also in othersubjects such as embryology, pathology, parasitology, clinicsand forensic veterinary medicine. During preparation, formalinis used for tissue fixation, acetone for dehydration, glycerin forimpregnation and corn starch for drying of specimens. In thisstudy, we observed effectiveness of the method on more than100 different specimens. The results showed that lower qualityspecimens are obtained when the organs are stored in formalinfor longer time. Usually, these specimens became darker withthe decrease of visibility of structures. Furthermore, we noticedthat lungs become darker with tissue sensitive to damages.The liver preparation resulted in dark, non-flexible specimen.We suggest these changes could be due to the time specimenswere in glycerin since before this phase specimens had adequatecharacteristics. Throughout the specimens we also noticed thebad impact organ membranes had if left on the organ. With theacetone, they became too dry and their remains decreased thequality of the specimens. In our study, we confirmed the resultsof the author but we suggest that this method is not adequatefor every type of organ and that organ membranes should beremoved prior to process. We emphasize the importance of freshspecimens use, since older formalin specimens after preparationwere not of great quality.