An innovative method in venous coronary cast technique

Polyurethane foam (PU foam) is a new material which is being used in producing both macro-anatomical and micro-anatomical specimens. PU foam is simple to use, without need for special equipment. The present study was carried out to evaluate morphology of coronary sinus and its tributaries. During the study, we encountered few problems in carrying out injections. Coronary sinus and its tributaries were difficult to cannulate since the coronary sinus lacks a vascular stem, around which ligature can be tied before injection so that the cannula can be held in place. In contrast, in majority of the organs it is easy to inject since they possess tubular vascular stem to hold the cannula in place. A new device was developed which could be used to cannulate coronary sinus orifice to inject the casting media. The second problem we faced was saponification of adipose tissue. This made corrosion of the soft tissue difficult. Hence in this study, we describe the device we have developed to place in the coronary sinus orifice, and how saponified adipose tissue was taken care during the actual maceration step.