We use the 52 degrees paraffin from TBS in our VIP, and the oven is
maintained at 58 degrees.
The retort is set at 56 degrees, and we use only the first two paraffin
stations for one hour each.
The results are great from the smallest tissue fragment to the largest.
Depending on the workload we
change the paraffin every 7 to 10 runs. We DO NOT embed with this paraffin,
we use it for infiltration only. The results are great.
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Jim Ball [SMTP:xryhisto@ovis.net]
> Sent:	Monday, January 24, 2000 6:41 PM
> To:	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
> Subject:	first wax change
>
> I have been a firm believer that dry tissue can be caused by to much
> xylene
> in the first wax after the clearing process as much as over dehydration. I
> have found that the least aount of time the tissue spends in this station
> the better. I have tried to keep the over all exposure to 15 to 20
> minutes.
> Our department has gone with a cheaper variant of paraffin and the
> brittleness of the tissue has increased considerable. My question is, How
> often do you in histo cyber space change this wax. When we were getting a
> good quality wax I was replacing half of this station with half the
> station
> that followed in the process after about ever 350 to 400 blocks. This
> worked
> out to be about every third day the waxes would be rotated even if we had
> not reached 400 blocks there seemed to be enough carry over to justify
> this
> rule of thumb.
>           I have always thought that the fresher the wax the more
> insulating
> properties it had as xylene was introduced, but eventually this insulating
> property was lost and the 60 plus degrees helped this station to act as a
> french frying unit, This effect was multipled if xylene was allowed to
> build
> up in the next station and the next station. Would like to hear other
> peoples view on this subject. Oh yea we are using the VIP processor so
> each
> processor may allow for more or less blocks in my simple equation, and as
> the old saying goes " Hit me with your best shot "
>