Marcos Valenzuela O.; Camila Azocar S.; Krystel Werner F. ; Eduardo Vega P. & Fabio Valdés G.

Summary

The plastination laboratory at Universidad de los Andes has always worked exclusively silicone as a technique to preserve cadaveric material. However, this method has disadvantages in thin anatomical pieces. A plastination method has been developed using polyester resin P-4, using an already protocolized technique and adapting it to our laboratory to obtain better quality and resistant pieces, without altering the anatomical structures. Anatomical pieces of human lower extremities were used, which were fixated in acetone at -17 C and bovine encephalous pieces, fixated with 10% aquoeus formalyn at 4 C, with a variable width of 0.4 to 0.8 cm. The pieces were then dehydrated in acetone at -17 C; among these pieces, some were selected, impregnated and plastinated with P-4 resin, using in some of them a catalyst in a ratio of 2:1. The polymerization process was the same for all pieces with ultraviolet light. Solid and rigid pieces were obtained, with a partial transparency, especially on the thinnest cuts. No alterations in size and shape were observed. The best results in transparency were obtained with the technique without the use of catalyst. An adapted standardized protocol for polyester resin P-4 technique was achieved, obtaining good quality anatomical pieces with a higher resistance compared to pieces plastinated using the silicone technique.

KEY WORDS: Tissue preservation; Plastination; Resin.

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