Abstract:
Background: Cadaver dissection involves far more than the acquisition of anatomical knowledge. It has
a role in the development of professionalism; is a major shaper of attitudes such as respect, mortality,
privilege and the requirement to share knowledge; and helps to shape caring and responsible professionals
who are reflective and show the attributes for effective self-assessment. The use of human body for medical
and scientific research is a sensitive issue & any-thing involving human body is ethically acceptable.
Objective: To assess the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of medical students towards the importance
of cadaver & its handling in ethical standards during procurement, transportation, injection, dissection and
caring process in Ethiopia.
Methods: Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted from April 01 to April 30, 2018. The
data were collected from 279 respondents enrolled PCII at the School of Medical Sciences of the Jimma
University, Addis Ababa University, St. Paul University and University of Gondar, selected by simple
random sampling technique after allocating the total sample to each Institution proportionally. Descriptive
statistics, bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression analysis were employed to identify
significant variable of cadaver dissection based on ethical standards.
Results: A total of 279 respondents were included in the study out of whom 156 (55.9%) were male and
123(44.1%) were female and most of the respondents were in the age groups of 21-30 years (SD = 0.492
and variance=o.242; range, 20–30 years). The study results indicated that 98.6% of the study participants
had cadaver dissection session and cadaver was important to learn gross Anatomy, 235(84.2%) students
reported that the smell of formalin is depressing. The study result showed that about 45.5% of the study
participants had adequate knowledge, about 48.7% of the study participants had favorable attitude, and
about 39.1% of the study participants had good practice about the cadaver dissection based on ethical
standards to learn Anatomy, respectively. From the results of the present study, one might confidently infer
that cadaver dissection is still considered important and indispensable in the study of human anatomy
