Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 12, Suppl. 1, 2014 165 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 12, Suppl. 1, pp 165-169, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Trakia University Available online at: http://www.uni-sz.bg ISSN 1313-7050 (print) ISSN 1313-3551 (online) USING VIDEO RECORDINGS OF ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS FOR TEACHING PHYSIOLOGY A. Karaca 1 , S. Vardar 1* , O. Yavuz 1 , F. Turan 2 1 Department of Physiology, Medical Faculty, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey 2 Department of Biostatistics, Medical Faculty, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey ABSTRACT Aim: The aim of this study was to compare cardiac physiology practices which were applied on the frog heart with watching the video of the same experiment by the first year medical students. Methods: Students (n=217) observed an experimental study on frog heart and they prepared an observation report at the end of this practice. Other students (n=196) watched the video recordings of the same experiment. They also prepared an observation report. Grades were given from the reports. All students were answered a Likert type questionnaire about what they learnt one year after the practice. The answers were compared in two groups by Mann Whitney U test and Chi-squire test. Results: No difference was determined between the answers about to understand the cardiac function (p=0.980), the effects of ions on cardiac function (p=0.709), knowledge about pace makers and conduction system of the heart (p=0,474) in two groups. Grades were higher for the students who were watched the video recordings than the students who were observed the animal study (88,4 and 84,7 out of 100, respectively, p<0,01). Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that watching video recordings are suitable alternative instead of using living animals in teaching cardiac physiology. Key words: Medical education, Heart, Replacement INTRODUCTION Using animals for medical education can causes ecological and ethical problems therefore it is a controversial issue. Replacement, Refinement and Reduction (the 3Rs) principles have been revealed by William Russell and Rex L. Burch in 1959. These rules suggest replacing or decrease the use of animals and improve animal welfare. The 3Rs are applicable for medical education in addition to scientific studies (1-4). Therefore it has been shown recently that the number of living animals for education has been decreased in many of the country (2, 5). However some experimental studies on neuromuscular and cardiac physiology are continue to do in medical faculties or veterinary faculties. Therefore many ___________________________ *Correspondence to:Dr. S. Arzu Vardar, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Department of Physiology, 22030 Edirne, Turkey, Tel: +90-284-235 76 41 (1422), Fax: +90-284-235 76 52, E-mail: arzuvardar22@hotmail.com frogs or rats are continued to use for education every year (6). Using living animals can cause undesirable psychological effects including desensitization or feeling disappointed. Controversial results can be observed during the experiments because of the difficulties of standardization. Additionally, experimental studies can be painful for the animals and they can apply only ones in the laboratory without repeated (7). When considering the technological progress, to looking for new education methods for medical education are inevitable. New technologies give an opportunity for improving personal skills for acquisition and storage of knowledge. Three dimensional models are used for teaching the dissections (8), following the video images can be useful for understanding physiological experiments. These methods are retractable and watching again, reduces the using animals in