REASSESSING THE IMPORTANCE OF DISSECTION - A CRITIQUE AND ELABORATION

How important is dissection in basic anatomical education? In an attem pt to provide an adequate basis for a rigorous answer to this seminal question, a number of subsidiary questions are asked. What is the valu e of the direct experience of human cadavers? What is the value of dis section? Where does the use of prosections fit in? What are the altern atives? The emphasis throughout is on the need for hard data and serio us analysis. To this end, a variety of issues are raised for debate, i ncluding the variety of responses demonstrated by students to human ca davers, the importance of dissection for introducing students to aspec ts of the clinical ethos, the problems raised by students who attempt to bypass dissection, and the relative costs and educational merits of using cadavers and alternative approaches (including prosections and computer-based approaches). The relevance of the debate for histology teaching is also raised. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.