RE: Colon polyps and bxs

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From:"Rob Geske" <rgeske@bcm.tmc.edu> (by way of Marvin Hanna)
To:histonet@histosearch.com
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Julie,

i would suggest that "an ounce of prevention  be worth more than a pound of
cure."  what is your processing schedule?  do you process your relatively
small biopsies on the same schedule as your other surgicals?  as you know,
this could render the small tissues hard and brittle. if so, you might want
to reconsider the schedule which could obviate the post processing gyrations
at the microtome.

as far as expectations of perfection, unless you can be assured that every
specimen is handled exactly the same way (variability in individual taking
biopsy, method of biopsy, time before fixation, volume of fixative, type of
fixative, length of fixation, etc.), it is impossible for you to impose
consistency in chaos.  the best you can do, is be consistent after you have
the sample in your lab and document exactly what you do.

is this a new problem?  if so, what (or who) has recently changed? is there
one clinician's samples that are more prone to giving you problems than
another?

a little more info please.

rob


-----Original Message-----
From: Sanders, Julie, VHACIN [mailto:Julie.Sanders@med.va.gov]
Sent: January 25, 2000 8:27 AM
To: 'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'
Subject: Colon polyps and bxs


Histonetters,
   We are having terrible problems with our polyps and gastric/colon
biopsies.  We have tried the warm water soak, back to ice water soak, and
sometimes this works.  What I'm looking for is consistency...our pathologist
is quite unhappy that ALL the polyps/bxs aren't perfect.
What do you do for processing these specimens and are there any other
"tricks" to make them cut better.  All info will be GREATLY appreciated as
he is driving me crazy.  This has been an ongoing problem .
   Thanks to all in advance,
Julie Sanders
Supervisor, Anatomic Path
VA Medical Center, Cincinnati




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