Mercurochrome (merbromin)
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From: | RSRICHMOND@aol.com |
To: | histonet@pathology.swmed.edu |
Reply-To: | |
Date: | Tue, 5 Oct 1999 11:28:07 EDT |
Content-Type: | text/plain; charset="us-ascii" |
Patti Bourassa at Pfizer at Groton [which Groton?] asks:
<<I'm looking for a source for mecurichrom dye (spelling??) -- I've never
used it and this procedure I'm working with calls for labeling the tissue
with this dye for orientation purposes.>>
Mercurochrome is the trade name of merbromin (no C.I. number), a dye related
to eosin and fluorescein. It contains 26% mercury, and it should not be in
your laboratory. (see R.D. Lillie's _H.J. Conn's Biological Stains_, ninth
[and last] ed. 1977.)
If you need to mark tissue for orientation purposes, use india ink, or if you
need more than one color, specialized marking inks such as the Davidson inks
(used by most surgical pathologists).
Mercurochrome is a traditional skin antiseptic, daubed on children's cuts and
scrapes by worried mothers fifty or sixty years ago. It has long since been
replaced for this purpose by whatever they're advertising this week on TV.
Here in east Tennessee, where there are still a few upland coves without
television, Mercurochrome is still offered by a local patent medicine
manufacturer, and I know a surgical pathology laboratory that uses it (OSHA
doesn't know that Tennessee rejoined the Union in 1865). I think I've got the
address in my files, but I'd rather not promote it!
Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN
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