RE: [Histonet] Plastic Embedding Molds

From:"Morken, Tim - Labvision"

Dr. Hessler wrote: "...what advantages do these have over traditional steel other than you don't clean them? As steel basically has an unlimited lifespan, are the disposable molds really cost effective in a clinical laboratory."

 

Plastic molds:

Disadvantages:

Very high cost (although they can be reused for a while - just don't store in the heated space of the embedding center or they get warped)

Hard to orient fragments due to some kind of electrostatic forces that move the pieces around.

Slow to cool - again hard to work with small fragments and skin when you want to orient them a certain way. (though some may see as an advantage)

Not as flat on the face as metal, so more trimming - bad for very small specimens.

Do not hold heat the way metal does, so cools faster on the sides when time is spent orienting tissue. I see many more mis-oriented tissues in plastic molds, and mis-oriented mold/cassette problems (block face is mis-oriented to the cassette back, which means the block face is at an angle in the microtome chuck...= more trimming).

 

Advantages:

The sides of the mold are more vertical than the metal mold so a bit easier to cut (smaller face, sharper edge)

Easy to take off the block (metal molds are often difficult to remove)

 

 

Metal:

Advantages

Very low cost, last forever

Flat face

Cool fast

 

Disadvantage

Sometimes difficult to remove - use mold release (but that does take time and requires cleaning the molds daily in xylene/alcohol - we put them in the tissue processor and run the clean cycle)

Cracked blocks? I haven't seen that as a problem. It is mainly in large blocks. You can put them on a piece of paper over the cooling plate to avoid that.

 

It seems the only real advantage of the plastic is the shorter time spent taking the mold off the block and avoiding the time it takes to clean the metal ones (about 15 min/day max)

If I was paying the bills I wouldn't get the plastic - they are far more expensive and do not give as good quality face as the metal.

But...I haven't done a cost analysis of the plastic molds vs time spent to clean metal molds and then soak in mold release every day.

 

 

Tim Morken

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Hessler [mailto:RHESSLER@mail.mcg.edu]
Sent
:
Tuesday, December 16, 2003 7:56 AM
To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Plastic Embedding Molds

 

I would like advise about disposable plastic embedding molds. Was wondering if any clinical labs had experienced problems with delays and uneven tissue alignment due to static and slow heat transfer. Also, what advantages do these have over traditional steel other than you don't clean them? As steel basically has an unlimited lifespan, are the disposable molds really cost effective in a clinical laboratory.

 

Thanks

 

Richard B Hessler, MD
Chief, Section of Anatomic Pathology
Associate Professor of Pathology and Neurology
The
Medical College of Georgia


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