In 2011, the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) at the University of Dundee, under the leadership of Professor Sue Black, took the courageous step to stop embalming cadavers via the traditional formalin method and converted solely to the Thiel soft-embalmed approach; currently the only centre in UK to do so. The benefits of this approach are many and include:

1. the tissues of the deceased remain flexible and life-like to the point of being suitable for insufflation, ventilation, laparoscopic investigation and joint replacement training
2. the useable duration of the remains is excellent (over 3 years) and material can subsequently be plastinated for a permanent teaching resource
3. its ability to repel bacterial, fungal and viral contamination is high which is important for safe working conditions
4. the ability to be trained on flexible joints mimicking real-life-like articulation

In 2013, the MCh (Orth) Dundee students had Thiel Embalming Cadavers training workshops introduced as part of their clinical curriculum introducing Total Knee and Total Hip computer aided navigation arthroplasty led by Mr Kamal Deep, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and leading navigation surgeon.

Feedback was highly positive:

• “this is the best training session that I have experienced in my surgical training so far” was a comment that was unanimously echoed by all our MCh (Orth) students.

• “We are indebted to Mr Deep, Professor Black and Dr Roos for organising such a successful experience to our MCh (Orth) students as part of their clinical course”, added Professor Abboud. “This training workshop and similar other workshops will become a regular feature in our MCh (Orth) course as we always aspire to add further surgical teaching modalities and new techniques to our excellent course”.

Please note that due to our strict adherence to Thiel copyright and legal agreement we are obviously restricted as to what imagery we can show in the public domain.