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Suami et al. Plast Aesthet Res 2019;6:33 Plastic and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-9264.2019.46 Aesthetic Research

Review Open Access

The methodology of lymphatic anatomy studies in a
cadaver model: an overview

Hiroo Suami , Akira Shinaoka 2
1
1 Australian Lymphoedema Education, Research and Treatment Program, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University,
Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
2 Department of Human Morphology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Science, Okayama
700-8558, Japan.

Correspondence to: Prof. Hiroo Suami, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Level 1, 75 Talavera Rd, Sydney,
NSW 2109, Australia. E-mail: hiroo.suami@mq.edu.au

How to cite this article: Suami H, Shinaoka A. The methodology of lymphatic anatomy studies in a cadaver model: an overview. Plast
Aesthet Res 2019;6:33. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2019.46
Received: 28 Oct 2019 First Decision: 20 Nov 2019 Revised: 27 Nov 2019 Accepted: 17 Dec 2019 Published: 26 Dec 2019

Science Editor: Xiao Long Copy Editor: Jing-Wen Zhang Production Editor: Tian Zhang

Abstract

The lymphatic system is the area least investigated in the field of anatomical science. The major reason for this is
the technical difficulty in identifying the lymphatics in the surrounding tissue in post-mortem specimens. As a result,
the medical illustration masterpieces crafted by pioneer anatomists on the basis of cadaver dissections remain a
vital component of current anatomical textbooks. Several innovative techniques were developed in the past to allow
anatomists to distinguish the transparent lymphatic structures from their surroundings and enable thorough investigation
of the lymphatic system in a cadaver model. This paper focuses on these techniques, including the current technique
developed by the authors themselves.

Keywords: Anatomy, lymphatic system, cadaver, mercury, indocyanine green

INTRODUCTION
[1]
Since lymphanagiography was introduced by Kinmonth in the 1950s, several other imaging
techniques have been developed to provide imaging of the lymphatic system in the clinical setting.
Lymphoscintigraphy [2,3] is the current gold standard procedure, but indocyanine green (ICG)
lymphography [4-6] , magnetic resonance lymphography [7,8] , and single-photon emission computed

© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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