COSMETIC TOWN JOURNAL



IT’S ALIVE! (Sorta) The Life of Synthetic Cadavers

Posted July 07, 2015

As gruesome as it might seem to non-medical personnel, there is a large demand for cadavers.  One of the main groups always in need of cadavers is medical students.  Even though they might seem terrifying to the general public, cadavers are one of the best tools around to help medical students practice surgery.  If there is any drawback to the use of cadavers by medical students, the cadaver can’t simulate how a living human body reacts to medical treatments.  One company, based in Tampa Bay, has come up with an almost life-like solution to this problem called a syndaver (synthetic surgery cadaver).

The life-size “Synthetic Human”, from SynDaver Labs, is created with synthetic tissue that includes salt content, fiber and water.  The name “syndaver” stands for “synthetic cadaver”.  Taking the life-like qualities of the syndaver a step further, the cadavers contain replaceable vessels, bones and muscles.

According to Dr. Christopher Sakezles, the founder of SynDaver Labs, “Cadavers are perfect for gross anatomy training, and it’s very common for physicians to learn how to do things on cadaver parts.”  Sakezeles went on to say “the endgame of all this is actually to replace a live patient.” (1)

The syndaver is unique in the world of medical studies in that it allows students to practice on what is essentially a live human body.  As an example, if a student needs to practice making an incision or placing an IV in the body, the student can practice over and over until they get it right.  The ability to practice these medical procedures on a living, breathing human body is not a realistic possibility for medical students.

Despite the advantages offered by the use of a syndaver, the price of obtaining one is not cheap.  The average price for a synthetic cadaver is $40,000 a piece.  Besides the benefits listed earlier in this article, the high cost is worth it to schools since the syndaver (nicknamed the “3D jigsaw puzzle”) also pumps synthetic blood through the cadaver and simulates a variety of vascular components.

The average price of an actual human cadaver is around $1000.  The final price may vary depending on which body parts are requested by the school.  Why would a school decide to purchase a synthetic cadaver instead of a human cadaver?  Some of the other advantages of a syndaver include the fact that the synthetic body can be reused and practiced on over and over while a student is perfecting a procedure.  Also, as the technology of creating synthetic cadavers improves in the future, the possibility of upgrading the science behind the bodies is not such a far-fetched idea.

While the use of syndavers has grown over the past few years, there are still some detractors that are not big fans of the idea.  In a 2015 email to The Huffington Post, Dr. Paulette Bernd, professor of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City said, “While synthetic cadavers or digital models can be useful for review, they are inadequate for learning anatomy.” (2) Dr. Bernd added that 55 U.S. medical schools that took part in a 2013 survey said they still continue to use real cadavers in the training of their medical students.

A more recent setback to SynDaver Labs happened in May of this year.  The company was featured on an episode of “Shark Tank” that aired on May 8th.  One of the “sharks”, Robert Herjavec, decided to invest in the company and offered to invest 3-million-dollars during the episode.  The program airs on Friday nights on ABC-TV.  By the following Tuesday, May 12th, it was announced that the deal would not move forward.  Following the announcement, Sakezles said he wasn’t sure why the deal was dead.  Representatives for Herjavec, as well as publicists for “Shark Tank”, did not release any further statements about the decision.

Despite this recent setback, Sakezles is still optimistic about the future of his company.  His creations have been used on episodes of “Mythbusters” and “Grey’s Anatomy”.  The synthetic cadavers have been sold for use by students at the University of Arizona as well as hospitals and military medics stationed abroad.  Even though the syndavers can simulate medical situations that the general public doesn’t like to think about, the future is looking bright for these synthetic cadavers.

Reference:

(1)   https://www.fastcoexist.com/3021301/a-horrifying-breathing-bleeding-fake-human-body-to-teach-doctors-without-corpses

(2)  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/26/synthetic-cadavers-video_n_7382952.html

- MA

Comments

Please login to leave comments here >>
0 Comments
-- No Comment --