[Histonet] Problems with processors and dehydration

[joelle weaver]

sounds like you have been through the "drill" with this one. Did you already test the solutions with a hydrometer & carry over contamination? If the lines are clogging, I would guess things must be co-mingling,  intermixing and being flushed back into another station. If it skips stations, well no wonder the tissue is not processing. I wish I could see the tissue ( and instrument), but your description of the tissue when sectioning, makes me wonder if you have carry over of water in the graduated alcohols. Does the tissue float in the molten paraffin with little air bubbles sometimes if gently pressed?  No dehydration , no infiltration, will be spongy and pop or almost peel out.
Did they tell you what was sitting in the lines during rebuild? 
I would just replace this thing- it is not worth losing patient tissue if it cannot be corrected after all this. 




Joelle Weaver MAOM, HTL (ASCP) QIHC
 
> Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 21:41:45 -0400
> From: hrfulklab <@t> gmail.com
> To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Subject: [Histonet] Problems with processors and dehydration
> 
> I have had some horrible luck with a processor that was purchased new 3
> years ago, I won't mention the name. It worked great for 2.5 years, perfect
> specimens coming off. Then problems started with clogged lines , long
> drains skipped stations, etc. The company took it back to "work"on it b/c
> they couldn't figure out what was wrong, they gave me a loaner of the same
> kind, used it for a month and the computer went out on it and it spewed
> paraffin all over inside of machine and lab floor, so the sent me one of
> their "latest" models to use while they rebuilt my original processor.
>   I used it for a couple of weeks and their was something wrong with the
> tissue, I couldn't put my finger on it and I thought I just needed to tweek
> the program. I was running an identical program to my original processor
> and it wasn't working well. Meanwhile, they send back my original machine,
> supposedly rebuilt, and want me to use it and make sure it's going to work
> before they pick up the latest model they were letting me use. I use my
> original machine for a week, get wonderful results and the clogged lines
> start again.Go back to the latest model and am having a horrible time,
> specimens are almost unreadable. Anything bigger than a shave, is horrible.
>   I don't believe it's fixation, they are spongy and puff up on the ice and
> peel out of section when cut, which makes me believe poor dehydration. I
> don't know how that can be, I am running an overnight protocol with 2
> formalins, 80% alc, 95% alc, 3-100% acl, 3 xylenes 4 paraffins, all of at
> least an hour a piece. If anything , they should be overprocess! I don't
> get any alarms on the machine, I am at a loss, the company is at a loss
> with all of it, I think it's poor equipment all around. Any suggestions?
> --
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