Housed in the School of Veterinary Medicine is a little-known branch of the Department of Kinesiology with a cutting edge approach to learning human anatomy.
The cadaver lab, which offers classes to undergraduate and graduate kinesiology students, gives students a human dissection experience that will affect the rest of their careers.
"Cadaver labs in undergraduate programs are really rare, especially in the South," said Wanda Hargroder, assistant professor of kinesiology.
Kinesiology instructor Melissa Thompson said the University is the only institution in the state that offers classes in a cadaver lab to undergraduates.
That class is Kinesiology 3519, Cadaver Prosection. The course offered to graduate students is Kinesiology 4519, Cadaver Dissection. The prerequisite for the courses is Kinesiology 2500, Human Anatomy. Undergraduates may also take the graduate course.
Thompson is the course coordinator for both classes. She said the dissection course is offered during the summer, and students dissect the tissues of whole cadavers.
The prosection course is offered during the fall and spring semesters, and students use the cadavers from the dissection course to identify elements of the body through touch, Thompson said.
"We really emphasize professionalism," Thompson said. "This cadaver is someone's relative."
The experience gives undergraduate students an upper hand when they continue their education in graduate programs because they are able to identify parts of the body more quickly and easily than other students who weren't offered the advantage of participating in a cadaver lab, Hargroder said.
One example is being able to tell the difference between arteries, nerves and veins, which look similar. Hargroder said arteries are tubular, nerves are flat, and veins are tinted blue because they still contain deoxygenated blood.
"There is no doubt that this is a big advantage for students who are going to graduate school," Hargroder said.
Thompson said the first course in graduate school is anatomy, so the students who took her courses are more at ease.
"Knowing anatomy is the key to understanding injuries and illnesses, and to help people," she said.
Ryan Pontiff, physical therapy graduate student at Texas Woman's University, said in an e-mail he took the graduate cadaver class at LSU as an undergraduate in the summer of 2010.
"The cadaver lab is a priceless assist to any university," he said.
Pontiff said the class helped him understand his graduate school anatomy class better, and the hands-on learning is preferable to new, computer-based learning.
Seeing the physical body and being able to touch it helps students to better understand how the body works and gives them a greater appreciation of how bodies are all different, he said.
Hargroder said the Department of Kinesiology wants to build a cadaver lab in the Huey P. Long Field House in the future, but they have not received any grants to build it.
Thompson said the cadavers are given to the University by the Louisiana Bureau of Anatomical Services, which regulates donations of cadavers to ensure they are being used for medical purposes. She said people willfully donate their bodies to the cause, and the ashes are returned to the family members after the students are finished examining them.
____
Contact Meredith Will at mwill@lsureveille.com
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this article!