[Histonet] Shredding and Vacuoles in frozen sections of skin

[Eva Brosco]

Hello Everyone,
I am the histologist in a new Mohs surgery practice and am seeing
terrible artifact in the frozen tissue. It is multi complex (maybe
simple) in that the dermis is often blasted apart, glands are vacuoled
and not staining and the cells look spindled. I believe most is a result
of moisture (my lab is 10 feet from the autoclave room). I am using the
AccuEdge high profile blades in a Leica CM150S at - 20. I use Tissue Tek
OCT, tissue to matrix, not flat embedding technique (will try soon, its
is a good technique) Plus slides at room temp. I have scoped the slide
prestain and the artifact is present so it is not stain reagents. The
DermPath surgeon is not cauterizing until afte tissue is totally removed
from patient. I believe ice crystalls are the culprit but would like to
hear opinions. I have looked at tissue artifact on line but have not
seen any this degraded. Thank you all in advance.