[Histonet] Plastic embedding and Microtomy

[Cassie P. Davis]

Hi Daniel,

        I haven't seen plastics embedding and microtomy since the mid 90's. When I was at CCHS in Newark, DE we used to do our bone marrow biopsies in them. At that time there were molds big enough to embed a penny in.

    Yes, you need a different microtome to section these specimens. We had a glass knife micotome. We had to score and break glass knives at least once a week. This is a little dangerous and quite tempermental. The edge on the glass knife didn't seem to last more than 5 days and not everybody was good at making the glass knives. We adventually, reverted back to paraffin a few years before I left ('99). If I remember correctly, IHC does not perform well on the "plastics" specimens which is why we would typically process and embed in paraffin. We would routinely perform trichrome,PAS and retic on the plastic sections as well as H&E. I wish I could offer you more information than this.


Cassandra Davis
Histology Technician
Anatomical Pathology Laboratory
Saint Francis Healthcare
701 N. Clayton Street
Wilmington,DE 19805
Office:  302-575-8095
Email:  CDavis at che-east.org<mailto:n at che-east.org>
www.saintfrancishealthcare.org

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