You're right about the "tamper" use to gently flatten a larger piece of tissue
during the embedding process.     The greatest aid, however, is when one has
scrapings or currettings - multiple tiny pieces - which you would want to have
in the same plane of the paraffin block.  This device would facilitate that
specimen placement.   Without a device such as this, the pieces of tissue are
likely to be more sporadically positioned as the paraffin solidifies.  Since
all
of the curettage is submitted for microscopic examination, we would want to
provide the pathologist with as much of the specimen as possible for diagnosis.

Kind regards,
Nancy

Nancy Klemme, HT(ASCP)
Customer/Product Support Mgr.
Sakura Finetek USA, Inc.

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    How/why/when do you use a "Tamper"?
Author: "Miriam Schroeder" <vitalred@yahoo.com>
Date:       10/10/00 8:53 AM

Hi all.  I came into histology through the "back
door", I received excellent on-the-job training but
never any "official" or "formal" type histology
training as I assume one would pursue to get
certification.  (I work in a research setting, not
clinical.)

Anyway, I have one of these "tamper" devices & have
never used it.  Always wondered what it was for...
Now that I see it is called a "tamper", I imagine it
is for holding a piece of tissue flat onto the bottom
of the embedding mold?  (I always just use forceps...)
 If that is indeed what it is for, how do you hold the
tamper?  With forceps?

Thanks in advance for helping to educate me!

Miriam Schroeder

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From: Miriam Schroeder <vitalred@yahoo.com>
Subject: How/why/when do you use a "Tamper"?
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