I agree.  There is no way to be 100% sure everything is safe.  Treat it like
a needle stick or blood contamination and be safe.  We may find out many
things in the not to distant future that would cause regret in not be
completely safe.  Personally I would want all the information I could get
about the patient's history.  Pam Marcum

-----Original Message-----
From: MacDonald, Jennifer [mailto:jmacdonald@sach.org]
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2000 1:26 PM
To: Histonet@pathology.swmed.edu; 'Ray Lopez Jr., HT(ASCP)'
Subject: RE: Tech injury at the microtome


We treat this as an accidental innoculation (needle stick).  All blood
workups are done on the injured employee.  One can never assume that the
fixation was adequate to kill all potential pathogens.

jennifer



> I need policy/procedure on a tech who cut themselves in the microtome.
> This
> injury required stitches. Our path said to treat it as a needle
> stick/contact with blood and body fluids. Remember, we are dealing with
> fixed, processed, paraffin embedded tissue.
>
>