Cadaveric Lab

Workshops Conducted

Steady increase in the number of workshops conducted annually, excluding the COVID-19 Period (2020-2022)

Diverse Range

The workshops cover a diverse range of surgical specialties

Medical Impact

Workshops draw attention from medical professionals across institutions, showcasing significant impact.

Title of the Practice

Cadaveric Lab (only facility in Northern India): A Unique Practice for Enabling Improvised Healthcare Training Facilities for Medical Students and Surgeons of the University as well as other institutions.

Objectives

Medical programmes lay immense focus on improving anatomic knowledge for surgical procedures.
Surgeons need a good understanding of anatomy to manage patients intra-operatively and postoperatively. Cadaveric workshops help in improving the surgical procedural skills without the stress of an operation theatre.
The objective of the Cadaver lab is to provide a facility for improving procedural knowledge, understanding difficult anatomical relationships, and improving operative confidence for complex surgeries, further supporting the utility of simulation as a tool to help prepare trainees for independent practice through hands-on training.

Context

Cadaver is an important tool for medical education as it gives immense information forming the basis of nowledge for medical students. Until recently, cadavers were used for learning by dissection only during first year of medical education,. Now, clinical students & clinicians and doctors from other centers also use cadavers for Self-Directed Learning with near real situation.

Training in surgical specialties, particularly operative skills is a complex task involving training, ethical issues, and patient factors. Cadaveric skills lab is a cost-effective solution for learning various operative procedures, critical steps and that too in almost identical ways it would be performed in living patients. Trainings on cadavers provide a comprehensive understanding of various topics through lectures, case discussions and cadaveric dissections. Learners get a chance to directly view important anatomical structures along with surgical approaches and implant placements. Hands-on training under direct supervision of expert faculty in simulated environments is an innovative way of practical training.

Practice

Initially, there were cadaveric workshops for internal postgraduate students in University with formalinfixed limbs. However, such cadavers failed to provide a life-like experience, and this led to the concept of soft cadavers with good joint flexibility. Over a period, we developed techniques of preservation which have now become the main strength of our unit. We now provide regular training to not only our own students, also medical professionals of other institutions also come here now for advanced learning, often facilitated by our collaborators. The quality of cadavers is matchless, hence these organizations prefer our facility because of available lifelike cadavers. We organize body donation camps in potential areas like old age homes and receive ample body donations under the body donation drive conducted by the Department of Anatomy. All donors are duly acknowledged, and transport facility is provided during body collection. All bodies are immunologically tested while receiving them to ensure complete safety of learners.

Facility

We have a separate cold chamber for body preservation in the mortuary unit with 24×7 power backup and has storage racks to accommodate 16-20 cadavers in body-sealing bags at temperatures of -17/18 degrees centigrade. We have sufficient soft cadavers, 4 operating stations with overhead OT lights and monitors along with facilities of video/ audio recording and LCD for transmission of surgeries. Also, we have two C-arms with good resolution of digital X-Ray plates and a high backup memory. There is an annexed Conference Hall to conduct Lectures and discussions with interactive live screen conferencing. There is adequate space to accommodate 50 delegates at any point of time. Proximity to the airport adds to our strength and makes our facility easily accessible to delegates.

Workshops conducted

Arthroplasty – Hip & Knees, Primary and Revision
Arthroscopy – Basic & Advanced
Pelvis – Acetabular Fracture Fixation Procedures
Minimally Invasive Spine Surgeries
Thyroid Surgeries
Cosmetic Surgeries on the Nose and Septoplasty
Bronchoscopy Surgeries and Procedures
Cryotherapy in Pulmonology Procedures
Trauma Procedures
Gynecological Surgical Procedures

Future plans

Through our recent agreement with Stryker India Private Limited and Stryker Global Technology Centre Private Limited we are in the process to introduce robotic cadaveric surgery training in 2024, which shall make us pioneers in the field of robotic cadaveric workshops in this part of the country.

Evidence of Success

It has been 10 years now since we started Cadaveric Workshops in our esteemed Institute. The following table shows the number of workshops held each year:

Year	No. of Workshop Conducted	No. of Trainees Trained
2014	16	228
2015	10	111
2016	19	306
2017	13	179
2018	10	222
2019	9	269
2020	2	60
2021	0	0
2022	1	46
2023	11	236

The above data clearly shows the Institute is conducting 12-13 cadaveric workshops annually and helping almost 220-222 young budding doctors hone their practical skills, excluding the Covid-19 period between 2020-22. It speaks of our untiring, dedicated and committed duties towards creating skilled surgeons.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required

Procuring good-quality cadavers has been a major challenge due to increasingly stringent legal requirements. This has been addressed by organizing body donation awareness programs in targeted communities to educate people about donating bodies after death for teaching, training, and research purposes. These programs are currently the primary source of body procurement; however, active support from government authorities is required to procure a greater number of unclaimed bodies.
The high cost of maintenance is another significant challenge, as the cold chamber facility requires 24×7 power backup, leading to substantial maintenance expenses.
A dedicated CT scan and MRI facility attached to the unit is urgently needed, considering future plans to initiate robotic cadaveric workshops.

Notes

The availability of Cadaveric Labs needs to be expanded throughout the country and this model of enhancing surgical skills can be replicated elsewhere.