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Fixation and Sectioning

Fixation and Sectioning

Two basic types of preparation are used to visualize specimens with a light microscope: wet mounts and fixed specimens.
The simplest type of preparation is the wet mount, in which the specimen is placed in a drop of liquid on the slide. A liquid specimen can be directly deposited on the slide using a dropper. Solid specimens, such as skin scraping, can be placed on the slide before adding a drop of liquid to prepare the wet mount. Sometimes the liquid is simply water, but stains are often added...

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Formalin pre-fixation improves autopsy histology.

Jennifer Vazzano¹, William Sinclair¹, Bradley Zehr¹

¹The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Department of Pathology, Columbus, OH, USA.

Autopsy & Case Reports

|July 12, 2021

Summary

Formalin pre-fixation of autopsy tissues significantly improves histologic section quality. This simple, low-cost method enhances ease of cutting and overall section quality for medical autopsies.

Keywords:

Autopsy Histology Pathology Quality Improvement Tissue Fixation

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Area of Science:

Forensic Pathology
Histotechnology
Medical Autopsy

Background:

Microscopic examination of autopsy tissues is crucial for determining cause of death.
Histologic section quality is influenced by pre-analytic factors like tissue size and thickness.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate if formalin pre-fixation of autopsy tissues improves histologic section quality.
To assess the impact of formalin pre-fixation on ease of cutting and section quality.

Main Methods:

Prospective quality improvement study involving 46 autopsies.
Tissues (myocardium, liver, kidney) were randomly assigned to formalin pre-fixation (90 minutes) or routine processing.
Histologic section quality assessed by histotechnicians and pathologists.

Main Results:

Histotechnicians reported a significant improvement in overall quality score for pre-fixed tissues (p=0.0327).
No significant difference in quality scores was observed by pathologists between the two groups.
Formalin pre-fixation demonstrated a positive impact on ease of cutting.

Conclusions:

A simple, 90-minute formalin pre-fixation of fresh autopsy tissues can significantly enhance the overall quality of histologic sections.
This intervention offers a low-cost method to improve autopsy tissue processing for microscopic analysis.