Cutting Edge Ultra-Real Synthetic Cadavers Are Changing Medical Training

Cadavers have played an important part in medical training since year dot. It makes good sense really, if you want to practice chopping something out of someone, there’s no real replacement for a human body. Back in the bad old days when it was illegal to dissect dead bodies, there was an entire cottage industry based on stealing corpses from graveyards for medical use. Thankfully it’s now legal for medical students to practice on real bodies, but there is still a huge shortage of donors.

In an effort to bridge this gap a company called SynDaver have created the most life-like cadaver to date. It squirms, its pupils dilate, it bleeds, it feels real to the touch and it is anatomically precise. As an added bonus it’s freaky as hell. Look:

Image VIA

Like the human body, the SynDaver consist of 85% water along with a variety of fibres, salts and organic compounds. Their artificial muscles and tendons react in a life-like manner, giving students the most realistic surgical experience you can get without a corpse.

According to Dr Sakezles, the SynDaver is the most sophisticated hands-on surgical simulator ever devised:

We are the only company in the world that makes synthetic cadavers. All other anatomical models on the market are made from plastic or rubber, while ours are made from a proprietary library of more than 100 synthetic human tissues. The real goodies are inside. There is a full venous and arterial system too – with a chambered heart pumping heated blood – drainage flow on the venous side and peristaltic on the arterial.

Of course, there are many complexities that can’t be matched in synthetic cadavers yet. But one thing that makes them better than a real corpse is that they are reusable (and they don’t stink to high heaven, obviously). Once you have operated on them, you send them back and SynDaver’s engineers patch them up and return them.

If you are considering buying one as a joke to spin out your mates, they cost around £54,000. That’s a little steep, but you know what it’s like with new technology, give it a few years and you’ll probably get one free with an 18 month contract and all you can eat data.

Take a gander at some images of these incredible synthetic corpses:

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