Peripheral nerve tension due to joint motion. A comparison between embalmed and unembalmed human bodies

Various joint positions of the upper extremity were used to study the tensile forces on the median nerve. To analyse the effect of embalmment, tensile forces were measured in situ in unembalmed and embalmed human bodies. A positive correlation was found between tensile force data from unembalmed and embalmed nerves. This finding justifies, for comparative studies, the use of embalmed human bodies, although the absolute tensile forces are higher.