Dr. Steven Olson, associate professor in the Division of Orthopedic Surgery at the Duke University Medical Center, treats all types of patients: young and old, healthy-and deceased.
Olson uses cadavers donated to Duke's Anatomical Gifts Program to practice and improve surgical techniques for treating patients with hip and pelvis fractures, among many other ailments.
Many physicians and medical students at DUMC also use cadavers for research and educational purposes. DUMC receives 70 to 80 cadavers each year.
Roughly half of the bodies, which can be stored for up to one year, are sent to the medical school's Student Anatomy Lab. Most of the remaining bodies are used by the Fresh Tissue Lab.
"We treat them just like regular patients," Olson said. "The primary difference is cadavers don't bleed."
Full-body cadavers are embalmed for use at the Student Anatomy Lab in the medical center, where students study bodies to learn human anatomy.
Cadavers at the human tissue lab are used to practice and develop various medical procedures.
Anatomical gifts are donated based on the expressed wish of the deceased-often patients hoping to give back to the field of medicine. Neither the donor nor the donor's family receives any financial benefit from the gift.
Duke's program only accepts cadavers from patients with consenting family members, said program director Dr. Scott Levin, a professor of orthopedic surgery and professor and chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Gifts to the anatomy lab must meet certain requirements. Among other rules, the donor's body cannot be autopsied after death or severely injured. The Fresh Tissue Lab, however, readily accepts deformed bodies.
"Half are embalmed and used by medical students; the other half are sent to me at the Fresh Tissue Lab and used by surgeons and other doctors," said Clinton Leiweke, program manager at the Fresh Tissue Lab.
Leiweke is in charge of thawing bodies for use in the tissue lab, a three-day-long process that produces "a largely unaltered patient."
Although deceased, each patient is treated with the same respect as an actual patient, Levin said.
At the beginning of anatomy courses, students receive a lecture about the value of donating one's body to science and the importance of respecting bodies.
"I was thankful they were letting us use their bodies for such an important goal," said David Garras, a third-year medical student contemplating a career in surgery. "You see them work their magic, but there's nothing like the real thing."
Medical students use the cadavers primarily during their first year in gross anatomy courses.
"For the most part, faces remain covered-so that takes some of the human element away." Garras said, noting he would not have a problem with donating his body to science.
Most cadavers are cremated and buried in the Duke Forest or returned to family members after use.
In addition to a memorial service each May-which averages about 300 attendees-an area in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens honors those who donate.
"I think it's possibly the most important experience for a person joining the medical community-dealing with death," Garras said.
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