Your professional opinion and analysis of the remains will determine the embalming fluids and process. You should use your judgment based on factors like cause of death, medical conditions, and time since death. Follow safety guidelines like wearing protective equipment and proper ventilation. A variety of embalming fluids exist for different purposes, with preservative arterial fluids being the main type. These can vary in preservative strength, firming speed, and other qualities. You must consider preservative demand based on the condition of the remains and calculate proper dilution of fluids. Supplemental fluids and cavity fluids also have roles to play in the overall embalming treatment.

1. Your professional opinion is
what will determine the
outcome of an embalming
• YOU are the one making the determination concerning fluid content
• YOU are the professional deciding the types of fluids used
• YOU are using your professional opinion as to what the PDF will be
• YOU will make these decisions based on your pre-embalming
analysis, cause/type of death, known medical conditions, and
duration of storage of the remains

2. The manufacturer will provide
guidelines for the use of their
chemicals
And that is exactly what they are, guidelines

3. Safe work practices revisited
Wear eye protection
Goggles
Face shield
If chemical or bodily fluids DO get in your eyes, immediately flush with
water for at least 5 minutes
Phenol in your eyes may require immediate medical attention

4. Safe work practices revisited
• Protective clothing (gown/apron)
• Dyes can stain clothing
• Chemicals can penetrate through clothing
• Gloves
• Chemicals can be irritating to skin
• Proper ventilation
• Dilute spills with cool water (or ammonia)
• Keep SDS (MSDS) and first aid info handy

5. Safe work practices revisited
• Please don’t use formaldehyde based chemicals as an antiseptic
• Rinse empty bottles before disposing
• Re-cap bottles
• Only pour chemicals into an embalming machine that has water
in it

6. Preservative vascular fluids
• A concentrated embalming fluid that contains the following types of
chemicals
• Preservatives
• Germicides
• Vehicles
• Dyes
• Perfuming agents
• Modifying agents

7. Pre-injection fluid
• A supplementary fluid that is injected prior to a preservative arterial
solution
• Typically arterial conditioner, water corrective, and water (usually between 1-2 gallons)

8. Co-injection fluid
• A supplementary fluid that is mixed with and injected with the arterial
solution
• Typically arterial conditioner, water corrective
• Can also include: “edema” fluid, humectant, “jaundice” fluid

9. Preservative formaldehyde arterial fluids
• Index
• Low – 5 – 15
• Medium – 16 – 25
• Strong – 26 – 36
• Dye
• Noncosmetic – little or no active dye
• Cosmetic – active dye

10. Preservative formaldehyde arterial fluids
• Firming speed
• Slow firming – fluids buffered to firm tissues slowly
• Fast firming – fluids buffered to firm tissues rapidly
• Degree of firmness
• Soft – very little firming
• Mild – medium firming
• Hard – definite firming

11. Preservative formaldehyde arterial fluids
• Moisturizing qualities
• Humectants
• Non-humectants
• Special purpose fluids
• Jaundice fluids
• High index/special purpose fluids
• Dehydrating/Non-dehydrating
• Tissue gas fluids

12. Arterial fluid dilution (PDF)
• C x V = C1 x V1
(average concentration of bottles) x (volume of bottles)
=
(% [injectable index]) x (total solution)
1 gallon = 128 oz.

13. Arterial fluid dilution (PDF)
• C x V = C1 x V1
• Example: 2 bottles (16 oz. each) of 25 index mixed in to a 2
gallon solution = ____ %

14. Arterial fluid dilution (PDF)
• C x V = C1 x V1
• Example: 2 bottles (16 oz. each) of 25 index mixed in to a 2
gallon solution = ____ %
C (25 index) x V (32 oz.) = C1 (___%) x V1 (256 oz.)

15. Arterial fluid dilution (PDF)
• C x V = C1 x V1
• Example: 2 bottles (16 oz. each) of 25 index mixed in to a 2
gallon solution = ____ %
C (25 index) x V (32 oz.) = C1 (___%) x V1 (256 oz.)
C (25 index) x V (32 oz.) = 800
800 / 256 = 3.125

16. Arterial fluid dilution (PDF)
• C x V = C1 x V1
• Example: 2 bottles (16 oz. each) of 25 index mixed in to a 2
gallon solution = ____ %
C (25 index) x V (32 oz.) = C1 (3.125%) x V1 (256 oz.)
C (25 index) x V (32 oz.) = 800
800 / 256 = 3.125%

17. Preservative demand
• Medication (and what to know about it)
• Effect of drugs on your preservative
• Chemotherapeutic drugs can neutralize embalming chemicals
• Damage of drugs to the body
• Damage to specific organs (kidneys, liver)
• Damage to individual cells, decreased permeability

18. Time points and preservative demand
• Time between death and preparation
• Time between preparation and disposition
• Moisture content of the body
• Renal failure present?
• Weight of the body
• Liver failure?
• Adipose V. muscle content
• Nature of the death (trauma V. natural V. long medical history)
• Chemotherapy

19. Guidelines for strength and volume
• Preference of the embalmer
• Art V. Science
• Esthetic V. technical
• Average body . . .
• ~10 pints of blood
• 3 to 4 gallons of solution will displace this blood
• ~50% of solution is lost during drainage

20. Special purpose fluids
• High index (35 – 40)
• Jaundice (typically low index, with concentrated dye)
• Tissue gas
• Non-formaldehyde

21. Supplemental fluids
• Pre-injection
• Co-injection
• Water corrective
• Dyes
• Humectant
• Edema reducing

22. Cavity fluids
• Preserves, disinfects, deodorizes
• Can be used for surface embalming
• Can be used for hypodermic embalming
• Bleaches tissues
• Can be used for surface preservation of fetal remains
• Might [I don’t recommend this] be used for arterial injection (this will void the
manufacturer’s warranty on the embalming machine

23. Accessory embalming chemicals
• Autopsy gels
• Cauterizing agents
• Tissue builder
• Use post-embalming
• Solvents
• General – for cleaning the surface of the skin
• Tissue builder solvent (methyl alcohol)
• Acetone – nail polish remover