Técnicas de conservación de material biológico para la docencia

Teaching human morphology, especially anatomy, requires a practical component (dissection) or visualizing and recognizing real anatomical elements. However, access to human biological material has been limited in all medical schools by legal changes in most countries regarding the disposal of cadavers for teaching and research. Therefore, the search for alternatives for study, as well as the use of non-human biological material under appropriate preservation techniques, could replace the use of cadavers in the classroom or dissection laboratory. In this work, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of some biological material processing techniques for teaching, currently being used in the Department of Innovation in Human Biological Material and the Department of Anatomy at the UNAM School of Medicine. We briefly explain each of them and the improvements in the method with which we are trying to respond to the needs generated by the shortage of human biological material to make the teaching-learning process more efficient and with fewer health risks.