Anatomical revision of the dog's forelimb and chest girdle muscles using Anatomage Table Vet: A student's perspective

Traditionally, anatomical training has been bestowed using textbooks and cadaveric dissections to demonstrate animal structures and their complex relations. New didactic tools are emerging following the technological advances of recent years, facing also the growing difficulty in obtaining cadavers. The Anatomage Table Vet (ATV) is a virtual dissection table, containing digitized animal cadavers, with the potential to aid in teaching articulate tridimensional anatomy and train the visuospatial skills of students; ongoing research is conducted to test its efficacy when integrated in the didactic curriculum. The aim of the study was to obtain feedback from the students on using the ATV, compared to a traditional frontal lesson, to revise the anatomy before attending cadaveric dissection. Twelve 5th year students voluntarily agreed to participate in this brief trial. A revision session on the anatomy of the dog's thoracic limb and chest girdle was attended by two groups of 6 students each: experimental group using ATV (A) vs control group (C), receiving a traditional frontal lesson; both sessions were delivered by the same operator following the same outline. Subsequently, students had to perform muscle-recognition on dog cadavers. After the activity, a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire was handed out and answered by the students with the following results (percentage of answers above 3 for A and C): familiarity with target anatomy (33.4%; 0%); perceived usefulness of revision (83.3%; 83.3%); would have preferred a different revision tool (0%; 50%); would attend other ATV-related activities (50%; 66.6%); familiarity with ATV (0%; 16.7%); perceived usefulness of ATV for anatomical revision (66.7%; 83.3%). The unfamiliarity of the students with the ATV mirrors the need to implement its integration in the didactic plan, especially given the students` interest in its use. Although limited, data on the students` perceived usefulness of the ATV is promising.