Practical training on porcine hearts enhances students' knowledge of human cardiac anatomy

Historically, cadavers have been used for the study of anatomy. Nowadays, the territorial and legal limitationsof this approach have led to the introduction of alternative teaching methods such as the use ofpractical exercise consisting of dissection and observation of animal organs. The aim of this study was toevaluate the use of practical training on animal organs compared with the traditional method of anatomyteaching, based on the dissection of human cadavers. In this study, we seek to demonstrate the usefulnessof practical exercise on animal organs. This practical training was held a week after the series of lectures,thus leaving time for the students to learn and understand the topics discussed. Immediately after thelecture, all of the students completed a preliminary test to assess the immediate effect of the lecture.Immediately before the practical exercise, both control and experimental groups completed a secondtest to assess the effectiveness of personal study. Immediately after practical training, a third test wascompleted by the experimental group and the control group (no practical activity on animal organs) tohighlight the added value of hands-on practice in addition to the lecture. Data obtained from statisticalanalysis showed a p < 0.05 (control group vs. experimental group) only for the third test as expected,highlighting significant differences in anatomy learning between control and experimental groups. Thus,the results of this study emphasize the utility of practical training on animal organs in learning andunderstanding anatomy, considering the limitations of the use of cadavers.