And until the microwave can be purchased - if the person cutting the tissue
will place a trimmed piece of tissue between two cassettes placed back to
back, the tissue will be firm enough to cut "nickel thin."  

Joyce Weems
Pathology Manager
Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Steven Slap [SMTP:siksik@vgernet.net]
	Sent:	Monday, March 04, 2002 1:19 PM
	To:	HistoNet Server
	Subject:	grossing placenta

	Hi HistoNetters

	Louri Caldwell describes a common problem, of a pathologist (or
p.a.),
	refusing to gross tissue thin enough to allow for decent processing.
Unless
	this placenta tissue is left in formalin for many hours, the
formalin will
	never penetrate to the center, much less fully crosslink.

	In Louri's case, at least the pathologist has been honest enough to
admit
	that he or she finds it "too hard" to gross the fresh tissue
properly.  In
	this case, I would recommend a microwave stabilization step.  The
whole
	organ can be placed in normal buffered saline (or formalin-  it
doesn't
	really matter) and microwaved at 50 degrees C for about 30 minutes.
The
	resulting stabilized tissue can then easily be "breadloafed" into
	appropriately thin sections for subsequent either conventional or
microwave
	fixation and processing.

	best regards,
	Steven Slap

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	Hacker Instruments & Industries, Inc.
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