Jennifer:

Back "in the days" when I worked in a busy, city hospital, we used two
tissue processors daily.  We changed the first solution of each sequence and
rotated the others on a daily basis for both machines.  Later when I worked
in a smaller hospital, about 15-20 blocks a day, I just changed out the
whole machine once a week.  I used reagent grade alcohols. Here at CDC we
"change and rotate" after approximately each 100 blocks.  We use ethyl
alcohol.

Jeanine Bartlett, HT(ASCP)
Centers for Disease Control
1600 Clifton Rd. NE
Mailstop G-32
Atlanta, GA  30333
jbartlett@cdc.gov 


-----Original Message-----
From: Philopena, Jennifer [mailto:jennifer.philopena@canji.com]
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2001 5:19 PM
To: 'Histonet' (E-mail)
Subject: enclosed processors


Greetings Histoland.
I am getting a new Leica TP1050 Processor in a few weeks, to replace my
Shandon Citadel 2000 open processor.  I'd like to know how the
histo-community determines when to change the reagents in the processor, ie
after a certain number of cassettes are processed, or after a certain number
of runs.  I'm also interested in the type of alcohol used in the processors.
I use reagent alcohol from Fisher - it's 90% ethanol, 5% methanol, and 5%
isopropanol.  Thanks.  Jen