Re: Which microtome for prostates?
Kim Carter asks about microtomes for prostate work.
One of our pathologists is a "prostate man" and we have done many prostate
whole mounts over the years, most of which have been cut on a 20 year old
American Optical 820. They look just fine. Most prostates are too large to
fit in regular cassettes so we use large round stainless steel cassettes we
purchased from Lipshaw years ago. (Was Lipshaw, then Shandon-Lipshaw, now
Thermo Shandon. I don't know what they will be called next week). The
prostates get regular overnight processing. When embedding larger prostates,
we use a variety of moulds depending on the prostate size, with vulcanite
blocks placed in the back for the microtome to hold on to. The only limiting
factor is where the disposable knives are held by the microtome. You have
about 5 cm to play with.
For really large prostates, we use an old Leitz sliding microtome (aka
sledge) but we rarely need to use it as most are cut on the AO. Most
pathologists will not mind looking a large prostate in two parts if you
explain the technical problems
It has always suprised me that prostates seem to tough when grossing in, but
seem to process and section well.
Mike Titford
USA Pathology
Mobile AL USA
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