Purpose: To determine and choose the most suitable method of creation of the bone preparation in scientific laboratory setting.
Material and methods: 5 fetuses corpses (16–20 weeks) were provided by the maternity ward «Municipal Hospital № 1» in Severodvinsk. The creation of skull preparation was based on a simple maceration method in the scientific facilities of the Department of Human Anatomy of the Northern State Medical University. The study design was reviewed and approved by the local ethics committee of NSMU (protocol № 02/3-13 on 20/03/13).
Results: Preparation of skeletons with preserved ligaments of embryos, newborn and early-age children requires special equipment and skills. After analyzing the literature, some methods, which are based on using of special thermostats and the involvement of additional microorganisms, were excluded. The most suitable method of creation of bone preparations in this case was the way of maceration, i.e. maintaining the bones for a few months in the warm water in a closed vessel. Corpses used in this experiment were previously fixed in formalin, and therefore, they were previously briefly immersed in a weak solution of hydrochloric acid prior to maceration. Then the preparations were immersed in warm water in a vessel covered with a lid for access of air. After 4 weeks sawdust were added into the water to improve the decay. During next 3 weeks the process of maceration was extremely slow, so we mechanically cleared skulls from the soft tissues without damaging the bone. Then preparations were put in warm water with sawdust again to complete the process of decay. 28 days later the preparations were washed with running water and were put into a 20 % solution of hydrogen peroxide for bleaching. The result was obtained in one day.
Conclusion: As a result, we got the high quality fetal bone preparation for craniometry using the maceration, in scientific laboratory setting. This process was time consuming (4,5 months) and required a combination of different techniques.
The work is submitted to the International Scientific Conference «Modern Problems of Experimental and Clinical Medicine», Thailand, February, 19–27, 2014, came to the editorial office оn 22.12.2013.