[Histonet] Rapid liver core biopsy processing

[Garth Fraga]

Dear histonetters,
 
We do about a hundred liver transplants/year at our hospital, and the hepatologists do lots of liver core biopsies to rule out rejection.  They want a same-day diagnosis on these, so historically they have been rush processed on a two-hour cycle (VIP machine).  They are brought over directly from the liver biopsy suite immediately after biopsy, so they get very little fixation in the specimen container prior to going on the processor.  Recently we had a couple of sub-par cases and have moved to a four-hour processing cycle.  Do any of you have any experience dealing with rush-processed liver cores in transplant patients?  What sort of a processing schedule do you recommend?  Anyone handling them like frozen sections?
 
Thanks,
 
Garth Fraga (pathologist)
University of Kansas Medical Center