RE: Processor failure

From:Nick Kirk

Processor failure
Oh dear, sounds like a bit of a disaster.
My advice would to "reverse process".
The most important thing you need to do is remove any wax that is present in the tissue. There is bound to be a small amount of impregnation even after what the tissue has been through.
This is essential before any repeat processing is attempted.
I would put the blocks through the "flush cycle" on the VIP, i.e. xylenes (or substitute) followed by alcohols, preferably at 45 degrees centigrade, to ensure complete wax removal and impregnation by the alcohol.
This should get your tissue back to a state where it can then be re-hydrated safely with minimal tissue damage.
Fixation would not appear to be a problem so you could miss that step out when you re-process to speed things up a bit.
 
Good luck
 
Nick Kirk
Head Biomedical Scientist
Histopathology
Hinchingbrooke Hospital
Huntingdon
England
-----Original Message-----
From: Joey Wilkie [mailto:JWilkie@stmarygj.com]
Sent: 16 July 2003 17:38
To: 'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'
Subject: Processor failure

Last week our embedded came in to embed and found that the tissue was not fixed.  After some investigation, we found that the some of the carbouys on the processors had been misplaced.  Our tissue had gone through a 10% formalin, a 100% alcohol , 50% alcohol , 80% alcohol , two 95% alcohols, 100% alcohol, back into a 10% formalin and then into two xylenes, and then into four paraffin baths.  We are using a VIP processor.

Now the question is how do we go about reprocessing the tissue.  Any help that you can give us would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Joey
St. Mary's Hospital
Grand Junction, Colorado
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