Prosector

Probes and the prosector's own fingers are examples of tools used for blunt dissection where tissue may be separated from surrounding structures without cutting, i.e. the bellies of biceps brachii and coracobrachialis muscle were made clearer by loosening the fascia between the two muscles with a blunt probe.

Further to the protection that embalming provides against disease, educational institutions take great care in screening the cadavers accepted into their body donation programs.

A famous historical case is that of Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, an Austrian physician, pathologist and physiologist, who infected his finger during an autopsy and, due to the pain, became dependent on morphine and then cocaine, the latter at the instigation of his friend, Sigmund Freud.

Although it is difficult to contract it by a single puncture incident (the overall personal risk has been estimated to be 0.11%[1]), at least one case has been reported[2] among pathologists.

The continuous respiratory exposure to formaldehyde, used to preserve cadavers, is also an occupational risk of prosectors, as well as medical students, anatomists and pathologists.