Dear Greg,
      We use an Alcoholic Formalin which we make up for all fatty tissue.  I
think you will be greatly please with the results.  It is the only fixative
that I am aware of that fixes fat.  We get great sections without the
explosion on the water bath, as long as the tissue has adequate time for
fixation.  We can process most tissues the same day instead of overnight
fixation.  For specimens that come in late we put the cassettes in alcoholic
formalin and add a little heat and place them on the mechanical stirrer and
the last person to leave puts the tissues on the processor.  Just Thursday we
had a lumpectomy to come in at 2:30.  The pathologist grossed the specimen
and we did the aforementioned procedure and when I left at 3:40 I put the
tissue on the processor.  He even submitted the lymph nodes.  He had great
sections.  We also have an alcoholic formalin for the second reagent on the
processor for 1 hour.  Hope this helps.
Debbie Boyd
Chief Histotech.
Southside Regional Med. Center
Petersburg, VA