Beautiful reply! Sent from my iPhone
On May 29, 2012, at 4:58 PM, Cheryl <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Ann- > > May we assume you've confirmed this is happening at embedding and have ruled > out any floaters happening during cutting? > > When embedding, keep Kimwipes or other tissues around, keep the wells closed > and only pull out enough cassettes that you can keeep clean and clear of your > working area. Wipe forceps and surfaces between blocks containing fragmented > or friable tissue, don't put forceps back in the wells without wiping. You > can stack a few guaze pads on top of the spout to wipe as you replace the > forceps and change the pads frequently. Always, always only open one > cassettte at a time and never leave the station with an open cassette on the > station. Finish before standing or recap and replace. > > If you are working with currettes, cell blocks, or other cellular, friable > tissue, open and unwrap on a clean surface (hot or cold - embedding station > surface or wipe or l'absorb) and don't reuse the surface before wiping or > replacing. If you're using knives or scalpels to scrape, make sure the > handles and connection points aren't harboring residual tissue. Buy those > little seamless paring knive from the dollar store--they fit in the wells and > wipe easily. Use swabs between embedding sessions or between people trading > places to clean the wells and then clean them again at the end of the > embedding session. > > If you keep molten paraffin in the hold bins, filter or replace frequently > and do not reuse. If you keep the hold bins dry, clean routinely (daily) > Clean your molten wax chamber periodically to remove contaminants and keep > the filter from clogging over time. Most embedding station mfc don't condone > running xylene through the tubes & pumps--clean hot wax will do the job. > > We always make it the responsibility of each person to clean both at the end > of embedding AND to clean again before starting to fully assure the wells and > surfaces were clear and eliminate a possible cross if one person in the chain > forgets...double system processes like you double check specimen IDs. > > You'll go through a whole bunch of kimwipes--but they are much cheaper than > gauze and SOOO much better than a cross contamination situation. IF it still > happens, it's time to track who embeds each block to see if there's a pattern > by person. The point is not to write people up but to support developing > clean habits and to adjust their habits to do it to their best ability. > > Wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe!! Hope this helps! > > Cheryl Kerry, HT(ASCP) > Full Staff Inc. > Staffing the AP Lab by helping one GREAT Tech at a time. > 281.852.9457 Office > 800.756.3309 Phone & Fax > [email protected] > > Sign up for the FREE newsletter AP News--updates, tricks of the trade and > current issues for Anatomic Pathology Clinical Labs. Send a 'subscribe' > request to [email protected]. Please include your name and specialty in > the body of the email. > _______________________________________________ > Histonet mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
