[Histonet] Re: Histogel

[Robert Richmond]

Histogel is indeed expensive, and often not permitted by Management
for that reason.

Preparing your own agar is a bit tricky - you really need a hot plate
and a magnetic stirrer, unlikely items in a histology lab. (2% or 3%
dry agar, in water.)

Back before hospital microbiology turned into the black box it is
today, you used to be able to walk across the hall and pick up a tube
of trypticase soy agar (TSA - I think it was 3% agar with some stuff
in it to make bugs grow) and use that.

One way to use agar is for the pathologist to pour out some melted
agar on a glass slide or metal ruler, and embed small specimens in it
so they stay oriented - works great for temporal artery biopsies and
vasectomy specimens - time consuming.

A blood bank heating block is useful for keeping tubes of agar melted
at the gross desk.

Whether you use Histogel or some other agar, it's very important not
to commit any valuable specimens to it until you're sure it works in
your system. I like to carve out some "pseudo-biopsies" from a normal
mucosa in a colon resection specimen and run them. - I've seen some
disasters when this precaution wasn't taken.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN