[Histonet] [EXTERNAL] Re: Staples and Sutures

[Boyd, Debbie M]

Definitely the paths/PA's responsibility.  Putting it in the histotech's court is like saying the car is responsible for hitting the pedestrian (not the driver). Crazy. We sometimes can see them when embedding but by then the tissue is not as pliable for easy removal without disturbing the tissue architecture.  Margins are destroyed by the time we get the suture out.  Ninety-nine percent of the time you can not find the knot to cut for removal.  
Staples can be embedded so deeply that they don't "shine" in reflective light.  Only the blade finds them. If there is a whole line of them, the tissue is practically destroyed by pulling them out. 

Debbie M. Boyd HT (ASCP) | Chief Histologist  | Southside Regional Medical Center | 200 Medical Park Blvd.  |  Petersburg, Va.  23805 | PH 804-765-5025 | FAX 804-765-6058

________________________________________
From: Bob Richmond via Histonet [histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 8:47 PM
To: Histonet at lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Histonet] Staples and Sutures

Kenneth G Metzger HTL(ASCP), Histology Supervisor, ARUP Labs, Salt Lake
City, Utah asks:

>>Recently we have had a marked increase in staples and sutures in our
tissue that arrives for processing. I have tried to relay to our
pathologists and PA's the difficulty in cutting sections and the tissue
destruction in getting staples and sutures out once the tissue is processed
to paraffin. I was told by some of them that in their experience histology
should dealing with this issue. Though my own opinion is this is position
is not valid, I've been asked to collect opinions from other histology
departments if there are protocols that the grossing individual should be
removing the foreign object. Please give me any feedback...Thanks<<

What la-la land are your pathologists and PAs off in? I've caught plenty of
hell in my life in pathology since 1964 - particularly back before the days
of disposable blades - for not getting staples out of tissue before
submitting it. This is definitely the responsibility of whoever's doing the
grossing.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Maryville TN
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