Flexibility of Thiel's embalmed cadavers: the explanation is probably in the muscles

International audience; Introduction The flexibility of cadavers conserved using Thiel's embalming method remains unexplained. We aimed to perform microscopic comparison of muscle and tendon fibres from fresh cadavers (FC), formaldehyde-preserved cadavers (FPC) and cadavers conserved by Thiel's method (TC). Methods Muscle and tendon biopsies performed on FC, FPC and TC were conditioned and stained by Masson's trichrome, Sirius red and Ramon y Cajal, then studied under optical microscope. Alignment and integrity of the muscle and tendon fibres were studied. Results We observed a modification of the muscle fibres in all specimens from TC, regardless of the type of staining used. The muscle fi…