title: New contributions to the development of a plastination technique at room temperature with silicone.
abstract: The aim of this work is to present a room-temperature plastination technique developed in our laboratories and its results. This technique emphasizes the use of silicones, catalysts, and generic hardeners, and some variations of the traditional technique resulted in low cost and high-speed implementation. Two hands, a heart, and a brain were dissected from Caucasian adult undefined-gender cadavers previously kept in 5 % formalin solution. Also dissected was a pig heart kept in 5 % formalin solution. Dehydration was performed for 1 month at room temperature to favor defatting. Afterwards, forced impregnation took place. The average process for each specimen lasted 3 or 4 days, 8 h a day (active forced impregnation), halting the forced impregnation overnight (passive forced impregnation). Once 5 mmHg had been reached without bubbling and the vacuum process had ended, specimens were drained and positioned. Finally, curing was performed by subjecting the specimens to cross-linker. The different morphological characteristics of the specimens determined variations in the forced impregnation time, as well as curing. Once polymerization was complete, specimens were stored in plastic bags, facilitating internal curing. Three kinds of silicones were used: Biodur, North Carolina, and a local generic. The catalyst and the hardener were generic products also acquired locally. Based on our technique, we obtained completely dry and rigid specimens, of excellent quality and durability, which kept their original color and anatomical shape.
authors.affiliation: Plastination Laboratory, Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile, nicolas.ottone@ufrontera.cl.
authors.forename: Nicolás Ernesto
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Ottone
authors.forename: Vanina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cirigliano
authors.forename: Homero Felipe
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.forename: Carlos Daniel
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Medan
authors.forename: Rubén Daniel
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Algieri
authors.forename: Gonzalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borges Brum
authors.forename: Ramón
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fuentes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain; D002102:Cadaver; D006225:Hand; D006321:Heart; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016613:Plastic Embedding / Q000379:methods*; D012828:Silicones; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods; D013552:Swine; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D012828:Silicones