E-Autopsy: Surgical Students Practice On Virtual Cadaver

Medical science has come a long way from stealing executed convicts' corpses in the middle of the night for purposes of anatomical study. Now, prospective scalpel-slingers can practice on a life-sized virtual replica of a human, intricately detailed in 3-D.

The Anamotage table is a composite of CAT scans taken from every conceivable angle and position. Currently in use at the University of Edinburgh, the Anamotage allows student to both remove and replace all of a human being's bones, muscles, organs, veins, arteries, and nerves. A corresponding life-sized, 3-D hologram also joins the state-of-the-art surgery simulation. Bodies can be rotated and viewed along 3 planes for optimum operation.

Professor Gordon Findlater claimed the device had good feedback from students and staff at the university, noting, "Although it will never, I believe, replace the experience of dissecting and handling a real cadaver, it will allow students to handle a virtual cadaver without all the legislation that accompanies the use of a real one."

Let's have a hand for surgical science!

Actual image from the Anamotage.