The individual on whom the demonstration
was performed had, before his death, enrolled on von Hagens’
body donor programme and consented to the use of his body for public
education in anatomy, including public demonstration. A plaster
mask was placed over the face to preserve anonymity.
The theme of this dissection was circulation.
Two interrelated systems were revealed: the lungs
or respiratory system, and the heart and blood vessels or circulatory
system. Both systems are involved in oxygen metabolism.
Oxygen enters the body via the lungs, and is there
combined with blood. The arterial system of blood vessels carries
oxygen to the tissues, where it provides the energy for life. Spent
oxygen, in the form of carbon dioxide, is then carried back to the
lungs via a system of veins and exhaled into the environment. This
process continues silently every second of life.
The heart and lungs are constantly on the go.
Every part of the body needs to be supplied with oxygen and needs
to have waste products such as carbon dioxide removed. If circulation
stops, the consequences are immediately disastrous. The brain is
most sensitive to lack of oxygen – without it we lose consciousness
within seconds and the brain is irreversibly damaged within a minute
or two.
The systems of circulation are best revealed with
the body in the traditional prone position on a table.
In this dissection, the body hadn’t
been preserved with a fixative but had been stored frozen. This
allowed for a demonstration of inflation and deflation of lungs
and injection of the blood vessels, which wouldn’t have been
possible after fixation due to tissue stiffness.
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