[Histonet] Processing of breast tissue

[Charles Riley]

We have been experiencing some issue lately with cutting our breast
excisions. Recently we had two specimen where after our 8 hr run the tissue
was still extremely soft. Our medical director said the fat sectioned
beautifully but the fibrous tissue appeared cooked. Can anyone give a
suggestion as to how we should process our breast excisions from grossing
through to microtomy sectioning.

Currently I have tried to get grossing to limit the specimen to 2mm by 2mm
by 1mm thick. We run an 8hr process using the Thermo Shandon Excelsior
processor. We cut our sections at 4um but have recently had to do them at
6um in order to get the soft samples cut.
-- 

Charles Riley HT(ASCP)CM

Histopathology Coordinator/ Mohs

Doctors Pathology Services, Dover DE