[Histonet] Re: Slide/Block Retention

[Bob Richmond]

I don't care what the herrn inshpektors say, the fact is that patient
care - with the rapid growth of genetic and other molecular techniques
- I think 10 years is the minimum for retaining paraffin blocks, and
I'd be a lot more comfortable with 20. In the future I expect we'll be
retrieving blocks to do studies on members of patients' families.

And if your kid flunks out of college, I reckon you can sue the OB
that delivered him - so that's >20 years for placentas.

An issue rarely mentioned: when a tissue lab closes, everything is
often discarded. We need requirements for tissue retention when labs
close. I have no idea how this could be done. But as regulations
increase and our economy declines, there'll be a lot of tissue labs
closing in the next decade.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN