We turned over the cadaver today
Mar. 2nd, 2004 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninevirtues(Warning..... gross but educational posting)
We've been working on the back and the arm. Now it was time for the chest. This entails turning over the cadaver.
I looked at the other woman in my lab group. She looked at me. Then she draped a towel over the cadaver's head so that when we turned it, the head would still be covered and we wouldn't have to look at it.
Then we turned the cadaver, made the incisions to take the skin off the front, and began cutting. Now, I was assuming that the mammary gland and its associated cooper's ligaments (those are the ligaments that hold breasts up, and once they're stretched out, they stay stretched) would be perched atop the pectoral muscle. So we took the skin off, found nothing, and went, "Hey! Did she have a double mastectomy or what?"
Before you conclude that we're stupid... we're dealing with a very, very skinny cadaver. Not a lot of fat anywhere. It was a reasonable mistake.
In any case, we eventually concluded that that just didn't seem right, and went back to the book, which told us that of course the mammary glands were modified sweat glands, so naturally they would be found in the superficial fascia (that would be the layer next to the skin.) Uh, we knew that.
Back to the skin we'd removed to expose the muscle. Yup, there are two small but definitely present mammary glands there, right where you'd expect to find them if you read the directions. We're off to find the brachial plexus-- a complex, weedy tangle of nerves that emerges from the neck and upper back and goes on to innervate the arm).
We've been working on the back and the arm. Now it was time for the chest. This entails turning over the cadaver.
I looked at the other woman in my lab group. She looked at me. Then she draped a towel over the cadaver's head so that when we turned it, the head would still be covered and we wouldn't have to look at it.
Then we turned the cadaver, made the incisions to take the skin off the front, and began cutting. Now, I was assuming that the mammary gland and its associated cooper's ligaments (those are the ligaments that hold breasts up, and once they're stretched out, they stay stretched) would be perched atop the pectoral muscle. So we took the skin off, found nothing, and went, "Hey! Did she have a double mastectomy or what?"
Before you conclude that we're stupid... we're dealing with a very, very skinny cadaver. Not a lot of fat anywhere. It was a reasonable mistake.
In any case, we eventually concluded that that just didn't seem right, and went back to the book, which told us that of course the mammary glands were modified sweat glands, so naturally they would be found in the superficial fascia (that would be the layer next to the skin.) Uh, we knew that.
Back to the skin we'd removed to expose the muscle. Yup, there are two small but definitely present mammary glands there, right where you'd expect to find them if you read the directions. We're off to find the brachial plexus-- a complex, weedy tangle of nerves that emerges from the neck and upper back and goes on to innervate the arm).
