Re: Gloves for F/S?
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From: | Tim Morken <timcdc@hotmail.com> (by way of histonet) |
To: | histonet <histonet@magicnet.net> |
Reply-To: | |
Content-Type: | text/plain; charset="us-ascii" |
In 15 years of cutting frozens, and using gloves in the process, I've
never felt that gloves hampered my dexterity at all. If you want to use
the best fitting gloves, then use surgical gloves.
Frankly, anyone who insisted on cutting frozens sans gloves in a lab I
was supervisor of would be shown the door. I don't even see the point
of discussing this.
Tim Morken, B.S., EMT(MSA), HTL(ASCP)
Infectious Disease Pathology
Centers for Disease Control
MS-G32
1600 Clifton Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30333
USA
email: tim9@cdc.gov
timcdc@hotmail.com
FAX: (404)639-3043
----Original Message Follows----
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 10:45:21 -0500 (EST)
From: "J. A. Kiernan" <jkiernan@julian.uwo.ca>
Subject: Re: Gloves for F/S?
To: Colin Henderson <COLINH@stj.stjosephs.london.on.ca>
Cc: HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu
On Tue, 10 Nov 1998, Colin Henderson wrote:
> I don't understand the risk involved in cutting F/S
> without gloves. ...
> ... Hoping for some lively discussion
Looks as if you've got it! My rather wordy 2 centsworth
follows.
The only risks of cryostatting that I can see are
1. Cutting your finger. The risk of this is surely higher
with gloves, which make all movements clumsier.
2. Bits of infected tissue getting in the cut. If this
happens, it's more likely to happen if you've got
gloves on.
3. Bits of evil tissue attacking in other ways, such as
getting inhaled or contacting skin with unidentified
but permeable injuries. This might be a risk when
cleaning out spilt trimmings etc from under the
knife, but surely not while cutting. I've only used
4 types of cryostat (Pearse-Slee, Bright, Leitz,
and a nameless old thing that looked as if you'd
buy ice creams from it, but containing an obliquely
mounted (sloping backwards) rotary microtome.
With all these it would be quite difficult to
get your finger on the specimen or the part of the
knife doing the cutting. A foot-long brush and various
other ingenious long tools are needed. When catching
a section onto a slide rather than a coverslip, it
seems (to me) easiest to hold the slide in the hand,
but it's well away from the block and the edge of the
knife. There was a slight risk of catching your wrist
on the corner of the long knife of the Pearse-Slee
when reaching deep into its posterior parts to free
up the oft seized mechanism of its horrible rocking
microtome (an instrument I'm too young to have learned
to love). I don't think gloves would stop that injury,
and in any case the corner of the blade wouldn't have
bits of tissue on it.
Let the lively discussion continue!
John Kiernan
London, Canada.
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