Elbow dissection: help please!!!!?

Question

hi, i'm a medicine student and for a project we have to do a dissection. i have an elbow, and i have to show the muscles and ligaments of the elbow, without cutting away the nerves and vessels.

i have just obtained the specimen, however my tutor wont be available till next thursday (today is monday here). i would like to begin as i am already late (project ideally must be ready in 3 weeks time). i thought i would begin by opening the skin and removing the underlying fat.

the problem is that i dont know what instruments to use. if anyone out there knows, please tell me!!! i have a scalpel - i guess this is used to cut the skin, right??? then what do you do to remove the fat???

another problem, which i dont know if it is a problem or not is that my specimen is 'fresh'. that is, it has blood (dry, not oozing out) and it is not hard, like the specimens my colleuges have. this is because there were not enough cadavers and i got a specimen which happened to be lying around.

by 'not hard' i mean if you press the hand, you can feel the muscles underneath, (you dont just feel it as something hard). will this be a problem for me when i come to do the dissection????


thanks for everyone who answers!!! you'll be saving someone from distress!!!

thanks!! (ps i do give the 10 points you know =)

Answer 1

Having a soft cadever is advantageous. You need a scalpel, a pair of dissection forceps and a pair of smooth forceps.Having a friend read the dissection manual of Cunningham is very helpful.. Begin anteriorly by incising the skin two inches above the cubital fossa and extend it to
below elbow. Harizontal incisions on either end of vertical incision extended laterally and medially expose superficial fascia. Cut it vertically , go to deep fascia, blunt dissect it till muscles,blood vessels and nerves are exposed. Cutting through muscles you can reach elbow joint.