Critical appraisal of Genelyn soft embalming for cadaveric surgical skill training: A systematic review

Abstract

Genelyn is a proprietary embalming solution used for preserving cadavers for surgical skill training (SST) and undergraduate teaching. The aim of this review is to examine the Genelyn embalming method critically by analyzing scientific publications that have employed this method for SST and undergraduate education. The systematic review process involved searching for all relevant articles in PubMed, Google Scholar, and Embase using the keywords “Genelyn,” Genelyn embalming,” “Genelyn embalmed cadaver,” and “surgical skill training. All studies on Genelyn embalming published up to August 14, 2024, in the English language were eligible for inclusion. The literature review yielded 92 studies, 43 of which met the inclusion criteria. The Anatomical Quality Assurance (AQUA) tool from the International Evidence‐Based Anatomy (iEBA) working group was used to assess and analyze the risk of bias in all the selected full‐text articles. The selected studies reported that Genelyn embalming provided life‐like joint range of motion, tissue pliability, and color. Cadaveric studies assessing embalming solutions typically had smaller sample sizes, and few of them compared Genelyn embalmed cadavers (GECs) with the other soft embalming solutions. Unlike Theil's embalming, Genelyn embalming is cost‐effective, with easy steps for the preparation and storage of the solution and convenient handling of cadavers. Therefore, GECs serve as an efficient tool for SSTs.