Plastination

This pathological horse hoof was selected, plastined and finally assembled for educational purposes.

Heart and Plain lungs

Plastination is a technical procedure for the preservation of biological material, created by the artist and medical scientist Gunther von Hagens in 1977, which consists of extracting body fluids such as water and lipids by using solvents such as cold and warm acetone to later replace them with elastic silicone resins and rigid epoxy resins.

This technique has the following advantages:

• There is no need for any conservation system for plastined specimens, only to be kept away from direct sunlight and when not exposed, they must be protected in bags or glass.
• Coloring approaches the natural, although this will depend on the mixture of embalsamar that has been used to preserve the tissue.
• It gives a stiffness to the dissections that lengthens the duration of the same and allows greater manipulation.

But, similar to cloning, the technique can present ethical, religious and legal drawbacks related to the handling of corpses and the will of the living or dying person in their decision to plastinate their body. However, it has been very well accepted by science and the public and by some countries such as China, Russia, Japan, the United States, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.

The purpose of plastination in the conservation of biological material is its benefit in the teaching of anatomy, the knowledge of the human body and the museographic exhibition (see popularization of science).

Process

Embalming and dissection

The first step in the process involves stopping the decomposition by pumping an embalming mixture into the body, through the arteries. The mixture kills all bacteria and stops tissue breakdown. Here dissection instruments are used.

Forced impregnation

This is the key step in the plastination process. During forced impregnation a polymer, such as silicone or polyester, replaces acetone. To accomplish this, the specimen is immersed in a solution of the polymer and placed in a vacuum chamber.

Laminated plastination

In this process, the body is deep frozen and topographic cuts are made in the desired plane, which vary between 2 and 8 mm in thickness. Instead of silicone, polyester resin (P-40 technique) or epoxy resin (E-12 technique) is used for impregnation and subsequent inclusion of the cuts in the curing phase. The use of polyesters offers greater advantages, since these do not tend to change the color of the bodies. You have to be very careful and try to avoid scratching (with handling) the mold obtained.

Curing (hardening)

In the final step, the hardening of the specimen is sought. Depending on the polymer used, a gas, light or heat is applied. The plastination of a whole body requires approximately 1500 labor hours and usually takes 6 months to a year to complete the process.