Kinematic and Kinetic Comparison of Fresh-Frozen and Thiel Embalmed Human Feet for Suitability for Biomechanical Educational and Research Settings

Introduction: In-vitro biomechanical testing of the human foot often involves the use of fresh-frozen cadaveric specimens in order to investigate interventions which would be detrimental to human subjects. The Thiel method of is be an alternative
embalming technique, which maintains soft tissue consistency similar to that of living tissue. However its suitability for biomechanical testing is unknown. Thus the aim of the study was to determine whether Thiel-embalmed foot specimens exhibit similar kinematic and kinetic biomechanical properties to fresh frozen specimens.