[Histonet] Submission of tonsils to Pathology - #2

[Richard Cartun]

I apologize; I should have stated my question differently.  Our Children's Hospital wants to stop sending tonsils to Pathology unless the surgeon requests pathological examination.  An article published in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (Nelson et al.) concluded that pathologic examination of tonsils is not a cost-effective use of limited health care resources.  "Zero cases of unsuspected pathology were identified on planned gross specimen evaluation (n=4186) and positive pathologic findings on microscopic analysis (n=1066) were only identified in post-transplant patients."

Have any of you exempted tonsils from submission to Pathology?  If not, maybe we should.

Richard

Richard W. Cartun, MS, PhD
Director, Histology & Immunopathology
Director, Biospecimen Collection Programs
Assistant Director, Anatomic Pathology
Hartford Hospital
80 Seymour Street
Hartford, CT  06102
(860) 545-1596 Office
(860) 545-2204 Fax