Danish medics have been coming to Brno for the summer dissection course since 1969!
This year it has been 55 years since Danish medical students have been coming to Brno for two-week courses in topographical anatomical dissection. In Denmark, anatomical autopsies were not performed because of unresolved legal issues related to the acquisition of human bodies for such purposes. For more than 30 years these problems have been a thing of the past, but the interest and tradition of autopsy courses at the MU Faculty of Medicine still continues.
Due to unresolved legal issues concerning the retrieval of human bodies for anatomical dissection for teaching purposes, it has not been possible to perform dissections at Danish universities. This created a unique link between the Danish universities and our Faculty of Medicine in Brno in the then-socialist Czechoslovakia. Although the Danes managed to solve the problems with the legislation in the 1990s, the autopsy course for Danish medics was maintained due to the interest of the students. The first courses were organized as four-week courses, including a rich social program, e.g. in Tata, trips to Český Krumlov, Moravian Karst and South Moravian cellars. Since 2012, the courses have been only two-week courses. Still, thanks to the staff of the Department of Anatomy of the Faculty of Medicine, this year they visited the Punkva Caves and experienced a guided wine tasting.
Although the problems with the legislation concerning autopsies in Denmark were resolved in the 1990s, the interest of students in autopsy courses at Masaryk University persisted.
This year, students from the University of Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus, Aalborg and Syddansk took part in the course from 15 to 26 July. They were supervised by assistants and lecturers at the Department of Anatomy. They were excellently guided through the anatomical preparations by RNDr. Kateřina Vymazalová, PhD, MUDr. Karolína Bretová, RNDr. Michaela Račanská, PhD, and MVDr. Ivana Pračková, PhD.
The students learned the manipulation of dissection tools, i.e. scalpels and forceps, and also fixed the basic anatomical structures and their relations. "Compared to studying at their universities, this way they get to see real human specimens, which is irreplaceable for their studies," says Dr. Vymazalová, adding that this is an interesting international cooperation for the MU Faculty of Medicine.
The Department of Anatomy is still performing what is known as a topographic anatomical autopsy. In this, the individual layers of the body are traced in depth, so that students can see exactly how specific structures are arranged and how they are projected onto the surface of the human body, for example.
