Effect of ultrasonography on the teaching-learning of anatomy compared to cadaveric prosections: systematic review

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: With the new curricular determinations in medical education and the difficulties in obtaining corpses, the need to include new teaching-learning methodologies in anatomy was seen. Ultrasonography can be a viable alternative, as it provides a visual-spatial, dynamic, and real-time assessment of anatomical structures. OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the effect of ultrasound in teaching-learning anatomy compared to the use of cadaveric specimens through a systematic review. METHODS: It is a systematic review, in which articles were collected from the PubMed, LILACS and SciELO databases. With the keywords used, 3,963 articles were obtained. After reading the titles and abstracts, 27 articles were selected for complete analysis. Four were included for use after eligibility analysis. RESULTS: Among them, two studies showed equivalent learning between the conditions of cadaver and ultrasound teaching. Two studies evaluated the association of methodologies (ultrasound plus cadaver study) comparing students exposed only to cadaveric parts. In one of them, the ultrasound group obtained higher scores than the control group, but with a moderate to small effect size, and the other study showed lower values in the ultrasound group, however, without statistical significance. CONCLUSION: This review showed favorable results for the use of ultrasound in the teaching of anatomy; however, few comparative studies with the use of cadaveric parts were carried out, which prevents the generalization of these effects. Therefore, more research is needed in order to obtain greater confidence for its inclusion in the teaching and

Keywords

• anatomy
• ultrasonography
• medical education
• ultrasound