Kelly Larson, HT(ASCP) at Pathology Services of West Michigan notes: >>I am using Fix-All from Surgipath for bone marrow fixation. I empty the >>syringe into the fixative as soon as it is handed to me (no messing around >>with clots). I fix for 1-2 hours in Fix-All, then transfer to a screen >>cassette and our normal processing with 10% NBF. The pathologist is very >>happy with the results.<<
Back when I was performing bone marrow biopsies, I'd empty the unclotted aspiration specimen in neutral buffered formalin. Formalin doesn't clot blood, so I'd be left with a mass of fine particles I could put in a tea bag for processing. (Tea bags now are much too politicized to use for this purpose.) I'd fix the clot (after chopping it up) and the bone biopsy specimen in Zenker's (actually Helly's) fixative. I would thus wind up with three paraffin blocks. Those were the days! (If I were doing bone marrows today, I'd use no fixative other than neutral buffered formalin.) According to the SurgiPath Web site, Fix-All contains formaldehyde, alcohol, and barium chloride, and is touted as a B-5 (mercury fixative) substitute. John Kiernan pointed out some time ago on Histonet that there is no rational purpose in putting barium in a fixative. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Knoxville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet