A novel patchwork model used in lecture and laboratory to teach the three-dimensional organization of mesenteries

Anatomy teaching is seeing a decline in both lecture and laboratory hours across many medical schools in North America. New strategies are therefore needed to not only make anatomy teaching more clinically integrated, but also to implement new interactive teaching techniques to help students more efficiently grasp the complex organization of the human body. Among the difficult anatomical concepts that students struggle to understand, the anatomy of the peritoneal cavity with its complex projections of peritoneum could benefit strongly from new learning aids. In this report, an innovative teaching tool is presented to engage students during both lecture and laboratory, and help them build three-dimensional (3D) mental maps of peritoneal cavity. The model consists of a patchwork of mesenteries and gut made from colored cloth stitched together onto a T-shirt to denote the origin and outflow of each peritoneum projection. As the lecturer wears the life-size model, the students can appreciate the 3D organization of the peritoneal cavity on a living body. In addition, the T-shirt model can be used in parallel with dissection to ensure a strong reinforcement of the spatial understanding of the peritoneal cavity.