Embalmers Reflective Report

Majority of embalmers place feature building after embalming along just prior to applying cosmetics, dressing and casketing. Many embalmers that I have worked with do not do feature building at all. I have done it several times and find it to be very easy and effective when trying to fill out the sunken in facial features and hands post embalming. Many families do not like to see their loved one looking emaciated and sunken in. It’s a fast simple procedure that works wonders for the deceased appearance.

The instrument of choice is the needle and syringe. We are able to obtain the perfect needles to use for feature building from the local coroner’s office for free. They are happy to provide us new ones when ours get overused.

Consider eliminating this post

embalming treatment in favor of enhancing DURING the arterial embalming. I think we should not eliminate a technique but always make a decision case by case to make an informed decision on what procedure would be best.
The femoral artery as injection site affords the embalmer the most control and in yielding uniform fluid distribution and symmetry in facial tissues.

I wanted to highlight this so I remember to raise the femoral and not the carotid artery.

Feature enhancement through arterial injection and allow the embalmer to improve rather than change the decedent’s appearance. I thought that this was an important statement because we never want to make them look so good that they don’t even look like themselves.

The femoral vessel should be injected first distally to observe for fluid distribution etc… This makes perfect sense to “test out the waters” by injecting the legs first.

The benefit of distance from the femoral injection site to the head affords higher pressure and rate of flow settings to overcome vascular obstructions or resistances. Using the femoral artery has many advantages when trying to achieve a more desirable appearance if the decedent looks emaciated.

While injecting, note the expansion of the intact right common carotid artery. Engorgement of this vessel is evidence of arterial preservation traveling to the head and etc… You can check on the progress by looking at the exposed carotid

artery.
Because large volumes of a solution are injected toward the delicate facial tissues, the arterial formulation must not be too harsh. The chemical composition is important when doing this procedure.
Too much humectant will yield a reverse effect and draw moisture from the tissues accelerating dehydration. Again, watching the chemical composition is key.
It is important that during injection of the last portion of the arterial solution, attempt to fully restrict drainage so that a very positive pressure is built within the vascular system. Keep the arteries under pressure. I am curious if this can cause any other issues that you will need to keep an eye on???
Delay aspiration as long as possible giving tissues a time to fully firm and react to the arterial chemicals. At my job the embalmers always aspirate immediately after embalming and never postpone that step. It would be interesting to get a debate going on when to aspirate.
One point injections are a luxury and not the standard.