If the pathologist will hold the small section between two cassettes held
back to back, there will be enough support to slice the tissue as thin as it
needs to be to process well. Hope this makes sense! j:>)
Joyce Weems
Pathology Manager
Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Wrona, Erin [SMTP:WronaE@pamf.org]
	Sent:	Wednesday, October 11, 2000 6:00 PM
	To:	'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'
	Subject:	Breast tissue processing

	Hello!  I work at a small clinic that gets mostly biopsies with an
	occasional surgical, and we are having a problem with the breast
specimens
	that we get once a week or so.  They usually get to us late in the
day (3PM
	or later) and the pathologists say that they cannot get thin
sections
	because the specimens are not well fixed, but want to put them
through the
	same day to keep turnaround time short. I am trying to find out how
other
	hospitals handle their breast or other fatty cases (ie fixation
times,
	processing schedule) in order to find out where our problems are,
and how to
	solve them.  Thank you for any advice or information that you can
give me!

	Erin Wrona