Dissection Lab Report

DISSECTION METHOD TO APPROACH THE HUMAN CORACOID PROCESS OF THE SCAPULA

3.1 Introduction

Dissection is a traditional approach to medical laboratory education(Waters, 2008). Using human cadavers one of the most widely used model in medical and clinical research for several decade .Considerable amount of literature have been published on different dissection methods of human body .(Romanes et al.,1986;Tank et al.,2008). These currant dissection manuals showed different approach to access different part of human body. However it is hard to find a standard literature which described the dissection method to access the coracoid process which can allow researchers, scientists and anatomists to approach this important anatomical structure with

These procedures do not allow unobstructed visualization of the whole coracoid process. In addition, the detail method to approach the coracoid process of the scapula typically not described in anatomical dissection books. It is rather integrated as part of pectoral region dissection which involved reflecting pectorals major muscles from their sternocostal and clavicular attachments followed by the pectoralis minor to its insertion until when the coracoid process is finally exposed (Romanes, 1986). Tank (2008) described a similar procedure for dissecting the pectoral region in other to approach the coracoid process of the scapula in human body. All of these procedures described above allow access to coracoid process at the expense of the integrity the pectoral region. Consequently, dissection of the anterior chest wall typically renders the pectoral regions unfit for continued

It gives wide exposure of coracoid process for the study of anatomical structures of the region, bones density as well as given clue to properly access this bone for researches relates to anthropometric studies.
In this short modified method, the skin was reflected laterally and the fat, fascia removed, the pectorals major and deltoid muscles are clearly defined, which correlated with some previous published reports on dissection procedures of pectoral region (Romanes, 1986; Tank 2008), unlike the previously published techniques, where the pectorals major and pectorals minor muscles were dissected to expose the coracoid process (Romanes, 1986; Tank 2008).
Our alternative approach seems to be consistent with the deltopectoral approach used in shoulder surgery with which the coracoid process can easily be approach once the deltopectoral groove with cephalic vein was identified, and the pectorals major and the deltoid was retracted upward and as well as laterally to access the coracoid process (Webb and Funk, 2006). In contrast, this new approach method to the coracoid process can easily be undertaken and the clavicular origin of the deltoid muscle could be dissected with minor injuries to enable the identification of the coracoid