Description
Clinical History
A 36-year old female was admitted to hospital with a 3-week history of bloody diarrhea and lower abdominal pain. Further history taking revealed 4 similar episodes of diarrhea and abdominal pain of over the past 7 years. Sigmoidoscopy showed a erythematous, ulcerated and oedematous rectal mucosa. She was commenced on steroid treatment but her symptoms failed to improve. She underwent a total colectomy.
Pathology
The resected colon has been sliced open longitudinally to show the mucosal surface. There is extensive confluent ulceration separated by oedematous islands of residual mucosa. The ulcers have necrotic bases with overhanging edges some of which form pseudo-polyps. Histology of the bowel mucosa showed acute inflammatory changes with crypt abscesses, focal necrosis and ulceration. This is an example of acute ulcerative colitis (UC).
Further Information
Ulcerative colitis is a chronic ulcero-inflammatory disease that usually involves the rectum and can extend proximally in a continuous pattern to involve other parts to the colon. The inflammatory process is diffuse but is generally limited to the mucosa and superficial submucosa. The triggering factor for UC in unknown. It most commonly begins between the ages of 15-25 years and is slightly more common in females.
UC patients can present with diarrhea, which may contain blood or mucus, fecal urgency, fecal frequency, tenesmus, colicky abdominal pain, as well as weight loss, anemia and fatigue. Colonic inflammation can lead to toxic megacolon, colonic perforation or colon cancer. Extraintestinal manifestations include anterior uveitis, migrating polyarthritis, sacroiliitis, ankylosing spondylitis, erythema nodosum, pyoderma gangrenosum and primary sclerosing cholangitis.
Treatments of UC include use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as steroids, disease modifying rheumatoid drug and TNF (tumor necrosis factor) inhibitors. Colectomy essentially cures intestinal symptoms of UC but extraintestinal manifestations of the disease may persist.
Advantages
- Anatomically accurate and identical to real specimen
- No ethical issues - not real human body parts
- Reasonably priced
- Available within a short lead time
- Reproducible, several identical prints can be used as a classroom set
- Can be produced in different sizes to cater for the needs of the teacher
Human Cadavers
- Access to cadavers can be problematic. Many countries cannot access cadavers for cultural and religious reasons
- Cadavers cost a lot money
- High cost for establishing your own plastination suite
- Wet specimens cannot be used in uncertified labs
- Dissection of cadavers is a lot of staff time and that is a cost
- Storage of cadaver material needs special refrigeration etc. which has coast
- If you want another specimen you have to start all over again
Plastinates
- Costs
- Ethical issues
- Timeframe for plastination process
- Many countries do not allow their importation
- One of a kind
Superior 3D print results compared with conventional methods
- Vibrant color offering with 10 million colors
- UV-curable inkjet printing
- High quality 3D printing that can create products that are delicate, extremely precise and incredibly realistic
Clear Support Material
- To avoid breakage of fragile, thin, and delicate arteries, veins or vessels, a clear support material is printed on such spots. This makes the models robust and can be handled by students easily.
