Modern embalming

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Modern Embalming ( English for 'modern embalming ') is a technique for transitional corpse conservation , the application of which is counted among the methods of thanatopraxia .

In today's funeral system , thanatopraxia includes all those measures that are necessary beyond hygienic care for the dead in order to guarantee the aesthetically and hygienically flawless laying out of a deceased and to simplify the pious farewell by the bereaved. This can also include the temporary preservation of corpses , for example for the purpose of transporting them abroad, laying them out in an open coffin for a longer period of time and / or in a public building (e.g. church , theater ).

Temporary conservation nowadays mainly takes place in places where it is customary for the deceased to be laid out openly before the final burial, such as in the USA , Great Britain , Russia or Armenia . The conservation measures are intended to ensure that the state of the corpse does not change due to putrefaction and putrefaction . The final burial takes place either by burial or by cremation . Long-term preservation even after burial, such as the mummification in ancient Egypt , is not sought.

To temporarily preserve a corpse, thanatopractors use a preventive treatment known in the United States and Britain as modern embalming . The blood is replaced by a substance that inhibits decomposition, such as formalin . In most cases, a disinfecting solution containing formaldehyde is pumped into the arterial system using a cannula and a hose , for example via the carotid artery. Formaldehyde solutions for corpse preservation have been used since the 19th century. The solutions commonly used in funerals today contain between 5 and 35 percent formaldehyde. The dosage can vary depending on how long the body is to be kept. In most cases, formalin is used today in a 4 to 8 percent solution. Large blood vessels such as the leg arteries are best suited for exchanging body fluids. Since important blood vessels are often severed during autopsies, the preservative fluid must be introduced at several points in such cases, either on the arms or on the cervical artery. It is practically a short-term preservation in the dialysis process . A mixture of alcohol, formalin and water-based lanolin is supplied through the dead man's arterial system . In exchange, the blood is drained out via the veins. The vascular system of the dead body is ejected with pressure and an average volume of 6-8 liters of formalin-containing liquid, for which electric pumps are used. A dead body can be completely preserved for laying out in about two to two and a half hours. The fluid spreads throughout the body through the cell walls. Depending on the strength of the solution, the decomposition process can be held up for four to six weeks. Decay can therefore be postponed for a long time, but not completely prevented.

Using this method, for example, the body of Raissa Gorbatschowa, who died in Münster , was prepared for transfer to Russia in 1999 , and in 2005 Giovanni Arcudi, head of forensic medicine at the Tor Vergata University in Rome, was supposed to use this method to remove the body of Pope John Paul II . have prepared for public laying out in the Vatican. In the same year, the corpse of Rudolph Moshammer was preserved in the Institute for Pathology of the Schwabing Clinic by Alfred Riepertinger, who also used the Modern Embalming method.

In addition to the temporary conservation of the corpse, the method described gives the dead person a rosy appearance. Blue discolorations on the face, such as those that occur after a heart attack, disappear. It is important that small cosmetic corrections can be made during the laying out.

In some countries there are regulations that prohibit the implementation of conservation measures in the case of particularly serious infectious diseases . These include anthrax , cholera , viral hemorrhagic fevers , plague , smallpox and other orthopoxviroses . In these cases, immediately after death and before leaving the place of death, the corpse should be placed in a hermetically sealed coffin with a gas filter system and the coffin finally closed.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Barbara Hartl: Schön for Eternity ( Memento from March 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), PM Magazin (accessed on November 4, 2012)
  2. a b c Angelika Franz: Researchers solve the riddle of the flawless mummy . In: Spiegel Online from May 11, 2009
  3. Embalming replaced by modern methods. In: Die Welt of April 7, 2005
  4. a b If the dead should live longer ( Memento from August 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Report on www.springermedizin.at , March 28, 2007 (accessed on September 7, 2012)
  5. Alfred Riepertinger: My life with the dead: a taxidermist tells , Heyne 2012 limited preview in the Google book search
  6. Cases in which conservation measures are prohibited , accessed August 24, 2014

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