pathology services handbook - St George's Healthcare NHS Trust

3.4 OUT OF HOURS ADVICE AND REQUESTS
The on-call mortuary technician can be contacted ‘out of hours’ on Pager SG240.
There is no ‘out of hours’ service for Histopathology or Cytopathology.
3.5 HISTOPATHOLOGY
LOCATION - St. George’s Hospital, Basement - Jenner Wing Cellular Pathology, Histology
Section.
3.5.1 SUBMISSION OF HISTOPATHOLOGY SPECIMENS
If an URGENT report is required please state this on the request form. Always provide a
contact or bleep number. Hand -deliver urgent specimens to Cellular Pathology.
Most specimens should be submitted in adequate 10% neutral buffered formalin - sufficient
to fully cover the specimen with the exception of the samples listed below:
Exceptions - which should be immediately hand delivered fresh via theatre staff.
These specimens should be booked with the laboratory as outlined in section 3.5.6
• Frozen section specimens - send fresh immediately in a dry pot.
• Lymph nodes - send fresh immediately in a dry pot.
• Muscle biopsies - send fresh immediately in a dry pot (unless being sent from an outside
hospital in which case they should be sent immediately wrapped in lightly dampened saline
gauze).
• Nerve biopsies - send fresh immediately; on a swab slightly moistened saline in a dry pot.
• Paediatric GI biopsies for Hirschprung’s disease – send fresh immediately; on a swab
slightly moistened saline in a dry pot.
• Renal biopsies - send fresh immediately; on a swab slightly moistened saline in a dry pot.
• Skin biopsies for immunofluorescence - send fresh immediately; on a saline moistened
swab in a dry pot.
3.5.2 REQUEST CARD
Each set of specimens from an individual patient must be accompanied by a fully
completed Histopathology request card including a bleep or contact number.
3.5.3 PROCEDURE FOR HIGH RISK SPECIMENS:
High-risk specimens are those that could, potentially contain category 3 or 4 pathogens
(i.e. Hepatitis B or C, HIV etc). For a comprehensive list of micro-organism refer to the
Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP).
All high risk specimens must be clearly labelled with a yellow biohazard label on
both the specimen and request form.
3.5.4 SPECIMEN PROBLEMS:
Unlabelled / Unidentifiable specimens will not be processed.
Samples pots must be securely fastened prior to transportation.
Leaking specimens may result in poor sample processing.
3.5.5 ROUTINE HISTOPATHOLOGY REPORTS
Histopathological processing and reporting of small biopsies takes 1-3 days. Larger
specimens can be processed and reported within 5 days, but may take longer if further
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