title: Overall wrist biomechanics are conserved by phenol-based embalming.
abstract: Although cadaveric specimens that have been fresh-frozen then thawed are considered the gold standard for biomechanics research, because they most closely represent in vivo tissues, potential problems include a relatively short useful time-span and risk of infection. A recently reported new method of phenol-based "soft" embalming has been found to preserve tissues in a fresh-like state over an extended period of time and simultaneously reduced infection risks. This study presents radio-ulnar deviation end-range data from 4 soft-embalmed and refrigerated human cadaveric forearm specimens over 12 months. All end-range comparisons were found to be statistically equivalent to within a clinically acceptable range of ±5 degrees of radio-ulnar deviation with a 95% con. dence measure of p &lt; 0.01 in every case. These soft-embalmed specimens provide promising results for further use in biomechanical studies.
authors.affiliation: School of Computing.
authors.forename: Andrew W L
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences.
authors.forename: Craig B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Casier
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Sellens
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Pichora
authors.affiliation: School of Computing.
authors.forename: Randy E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Ellis
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002102:Cadaver; D004615:Embalming; D006801:Humans; D010636:Phenols; D010865:Pilot Projects; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014953:Wrist / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010636:Phenols