Analysis of the pattern of articulating facets of talus and calcaneum and establishing the common types and their morphometric parameters will be helpful as an important tool for reconstruction surgeries of hind-foot deformities and foot rehabilitation procedures.

Variations of testicular vessels are more common than supposed. The testicular artery varies because of abnormal regression of the lateral mesonephric arteries in the fetus, whereas variations in the testicular vein are due to abnormalities in the involution of the intersubcardinal anastomosis. Such variations are usually found incidentally during surgical procedures around the renal pedicle and they often lead to complications. Several authors have attempted to classify them. However, these attempts have not been comprehensive. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a simple yet comprehensive classification of variations of the testicular vessels. The PubMed database was searched using keywords pertaining to the testicular vessels. The results were subjected to the Anatomical Quality Assessment (AQUA) tool analysis and were screened for appropriateness for inclusion in this study. The screening procedure yielded 31 original articles, 83 case reports, and 1 review article. Both testicular arterial and venous variations were more common on the left side (20.73% and 24.61%) than the right (12.69% and 18.4%, respectively). We classified the testicular arteries on the basis of their number (N), site of origin (O), and course (C). Similarly, the testicular veins were classified on the basis of their number (N) and site of drainage (D). The proposed classification facilitates identification, understanding, and reporting of variations of the testicular vessels by radiologists. It will also help surgeons to enhance the quality of their treatment. Clin. Anat. 31:854-869, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Learning anatomy by dissection of cadavers is the best way to learn anatomy. Voluntary body donation is one of the sources of procuring cadavers. In the case of donations after hospital or non-institutional deaths, the family members of the deceased approach the hospital authorities regarding body donation of the deceased. There are situations, where there is no available accompanying near relatives of the deceased, which pose a challenge for personnel involved in the process of body donation. In two of the reported cases, the body donation was done by the live-in partner and a friend of the deceased. In another reported case, the son of the deceased was nominated by the donor at the time of registration. As the son of the deceased was not available at the time of death of the donor, donation was executed by another near relative. Anatomy Acts of individual States in the Union of India and Acts of other countries are examined about the consent for body donation by persons other than near relatives. None of the Anatomy Acts of various States in India provide an alternative in the absence of near relatives for claiming the body or for donating the body, except for Acts of Delhi and Kerala. There is a need to bring in a Unified Anatomy Act, common for all the States and Union territories in India and include: friend, live-in partner and a nominated person in the provisions of the Act to enable them to give consent for body donation.

COVID-19 pandemic has posed a new challenge for medical schools across the world regarding the acceptance of donated and unclaimed dead bodies for academic purpose. Uncertainty of the COVID-19 status among the donated bodies poses a health risk for embalming personnel and medical students who handle the embalmed cadavers. There is a paucity of literature delineating the criteria for accepting or rejecting the bodies during COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, there is no recommended standard operating procedure for anatomical embalming during COVID-19. We propose certain criteria for accepting and rejecting the human dead bodies for anatomical embalming. And we propose some technical modifications to the conventional procedure of formalin-based anatomical embalming. A guarded approach and diligent screening of donated bodies is the way forward during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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