Is Thiel's embalming method widely known? A world survey about its use.
BACKGROUND
Thiel's embalming technique, first described by Thiel in 1992, conserves texture and colour in cadavers close to that observed in the living. It would appear that few anatomy laboratories use this method, and literature describing its use worldwide is sparse. The aim of our study was to conduct a worldwide survey on the use of this method.


METHODS
A questionnaire was sent out by mail to 311 anatomy laboratories or institutes across the five continents. There were six multiple choice questions to assess the level of awareness of Thiel's method, the frequency of its use among respondent institutions, the most frequently used solutions for conservation of cadavers and perceived obstacles to the use of Thiel's technique.


RESULTS
109/311 (35%) centres replied to the questionnaire; 56% of centres had previously heard of Thiel's technique, but only 11 centres (10% of respondents) used it regularly, and all of these were in Europe. Formalin remains the most widely used conservation solution around the world.


CONCLUSIONS
Thiel's embalming technique is not widely known, and therefore, little used. The main obstacle to its wider use is likely the language barrier, since most of the publications describing Thiel's method are in German, which is not widely spoken outside of a few European countries.
Benkhadra
Mehdi
M
Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Teaching Hospital, Dijon, France. m.benkhadra@wanadoo.fr
Gérard
Julien
J
Genelot
Denis
D
Trouilloud
Pierre
P
Girard
Claude
C
Anderhuber
Friedrich
F
Feigl
Georg
G
D000349:Africa; D001208:Asia; D002102:Cadaver; D004615:Embalming / Q000379:methods*; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D044349:Oceania; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States