Gee, John, you go through a lot to embed.  I don't worry so much about what
angle to place the tissue  on the horizontal plane.  As a general rule, I
embed cut side down, tubes show the entire lumen, tissue with layers (like
gut) are embedded on edge so that all layers are visible in the stained
section.  Skin is oriented the way you mentioned so the hair doesn't rip
the tissue. Also, my pathologists tend to cram a lot of tissue into the
cassette when they trim in the tissues. If it's too much to cut and
maintain my sanity, I split the tissue to make more blocks.  

Well that's my $0.02 worth. 

Connie McManus
Veterinary Diagnostics Lab
Utah State University
Logan, UT
USA



At 03:01 PM 05/08/2000 -0400, Mackinnon, John wrote:
>I know that there was some discussion recently about proper embedding
>techniques but what I am looking for is comments from people out there and
>how they do things.  
>
>I know that I was taught to line my skins up horizontally (can be slightly
>angled) with the dermal layer to the top and being the last part the knife
>cuts through.  Things like uterus slightly angled to make cutting easier and
>tubular multiple tubular structures lined up horizontally etc.  I was also
>told that you should place your larger rectangular blocks horizontally since
>this gives you the shortest distance through the wax and less compression
>and less chance for wrinkles in tissue sections.  Well that is my two cents
>worth now lets hear yours.  (especially those doing a lot of derm path)
>
>Thanks in advance,  
>  
>John MacKinnon MLT, ART
>Senior Technologist, Pathology
>Lakeridge Health Oshawa
>Ontario, Canada
>
>
>