[Histonet] potassium hydroxide/reprocessing of nail

[John & Jen Campbell]

Hi All,

  I was asked to place an already processed and embedded nail in KOH to soften it so the pathologist can section it further.  Right now the nail is going through the changes of xylene to remove paraffin, followed by changes of alcohol.  My questions are:
1) For how long do you typically leave the nail in KOH? Chec on it periodically I'm assuming?
2) Is it safe to leave the nail in KOH overnight (I will not be able to reprocess until tomorrow) or should it be moved to another solution, and if so, what would that be?
3) What schedule do you recommend for hand processing the tissue? I've done this in the past but do not recall the times and unfortunately do not have access to that info where I am at the moment.
Thank you so much in advance! Have a great day!

Jennifer