BODY DONATION FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN ANATOMY: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Resumo

Introduction. The anatomical study in the human body is indispensable for all health professionals, especially for the medical students. Due to the lack of human anatomical specimens, the global teaching of human anatomy in medical schools have been evolved, based on the scientific knowledge supported by new strategies associated with the use of current technological tools. Therefore, many questions emerged on the better way to teach human anatomy. Synthetic anatomical pieces? Virtual dissection tables? 3D images? Or the traditional cadaveric use? What would be the best way to teach and learn? The opinions in academic community differ on this questioning, and even with the divergences, body donation programs have been increasing in Brazil and worldwide, as India, Michigan and Poland. The corpse contact is fundamental to professional and personal growth, and to respect for life. Objectives. To evaluate the benefits and the complexity on body donation programs for the study of human anatomy in corpses, through a literature review. Methods. The research was made through the PubMed platform. The descriptors used were body donation and human anatomy and use of cadaveric for medical graduation. The selected tools were last five years, complete and free articles, and specific to the human species. Of the 27 total texts, 6 were used; the 21 remaining articles were not used for not having relation to the theme addressed, were incomplete or not available for viewing. Results. The analyzed works about body donation revealed that of the 896 participants interviewed, 65% are willing to donate their bodies for study and only 21% is aware about the body donation programs; of 128 medical students, 84% opted to study in human bodies and the majority affirmed that the corpses study stimulates the respect and empathy for future patients. Conclusions. Despite the use of corpses for study on human anatomy is ancient and traditional, there still many barriers for body donation. Unawareness of the donation program, lack of information, religious beliefs and discomfort on the bodies manipulation are some of the impediments that limit donations. In this regard, the role of education institutions and the media is essential, in order to demystify body donation for the human anatomy teaching and learning, and to provide scientific education.