[Histonet] Re: Bone Marrow Fixative
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
[Histonet] Re: bone marrow fixative
Now that we can no longer use mercury-containing fixatives, I don't think that the various proprietary fixatives advocated for bone marrow add anything to the morphology, and some of them can gum up processors or interfere with immunohistochemistry. Neutral buffered formalin requires time for fixation - clots need to be cut up as soon as possible after they're received, and biopsy specimens really ought to fix overnight before decalcification and processing. Communication with oncologists is essential (and rarely achievable). Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Knoxville TN ___ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
RE: [Histonet] Re: bone marrow fixative
Ah, in a perfect world! (which would be down right boring, thanks) Claire Neutral buffered formalin requires time for fixation - clots need to be cut up as soon as possible after they're received, and biopsy specimens really ought to fix overnight before decalcification and processing. Communication with oncologists is essential (and rarely achievable). Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Knoxville TN ___ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet ___ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
