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Concept
Cadaver
Summary
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Students in medical school study and dissect cadavers as a part of their education. Others who study cadavers include archaeologists and arts students. In addition, a cadaver may be used in the development and evaluation of surgical instruments.
The term cadaver is used in courts of law (and, to a lesser extent, also by media outlets such as newspapers) to refer to a dead body, as well as by recovery teams searching for bodies in natural disasters. The word comes from the Latin word cadere ("to fall"). Related terms include cadaverous (resembling a cadaver) and cadaveric spasm (a muscle spasm causing a dead body to twitch or jerk). A cadaver graft (also called “postmortem graft”) is the grafting of tissue from a dead body onto a living human to repair a defect or disfigurement. Cadavers can be observed for their stages of decomposition, helping to determine how long a body has been dead.
Cadavers have been used in art to depict the human body in paintings and drawings more accurately.
Human decomposition
Observation of the various stages of decomposition can help determine how long a body has been dead.
The first stage is autolysis, more commonly known as self-digestion, during which the body's cells are destroyed through the action of their own digestive enzymes. However, these enzymes are released into the cells because of cessation of the active processes in the cells, not as an active process. In other words, though autolysis resembles the active process of digestion of nutrients by live cells, the dead cells are not actively digesting themselves as is often claimed in popular literature and as the synonym of autolysis – self-digestion – seems to imply. As a result of autolysis, liquid is created that seeps between the layers of skin and results in peeling of the skin.
Official source
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Related concepts (13)
Diener
A diener is a morgue worker responsible for handling, moving, and cleaning the corpse. In the UK, the equivalent job title is 'Mortuary Assistant', whilst the preparation, evisceration and reconstruction of the deceased is performed by an Anatomical Pathology Technician. In the US, Dieners are also referred to as "mortuary assistants" or "autopsy technicians". The word is derived from the German word Leichendiener, which literally means corpse servant ("Diener" means servant.).
Embalming
Embalming is the art and science of preserving human remains by treating them (in its modern form with chemicals) to forestall decomposition. This is usually done to make the deceased suitable for viewing as part of the funeral ceremony or keep them preserved for medical purposes in an anatomical laboratory. The three goals of embalming are sanitization, presentation, and preservation, with restoration being an important additional factor in some instances. Performed successfully, embalming can help preserve the body for a duration of many years.
Plastination
Plastination is a technique or process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts, first developed by Gunther von Hagens in 1977. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample. Four steps are followed in the standard process of plastination: fixation, dehydration, forced impregnation in a vacuum, and hardening. Water and lipid tissues are replaced by curable polymers, which include silicone, epoxy, and polyester-copolymer.