Guide to obtaining and preparing breast reduction tissue from Tufts Medical Center
UPDATED: 11-1-12
A few weeks before target tissue collection date
- Contact Cheryl (Plastics department secretary, x65600)
- Tell her that you are a member of the Kuperwasser lab which routinely obtains breast reduction tissue from TMC
- Ask her for a schedule of the upcoming surgeries
- Once you have identified a good candidate, ask her to flag the surgery for Pathology
- NOTE: RM tissue collection is a 2-day process so Friday surgeries are not ideal
- Contact Amindsy Bertrand (Abertrand@tuftsmedicalcenter.org) and CC Brian Rohan on the email (Supervisor of the Cutting Room, brohan@tuftsmedicalcenter.org) let her know that the tissue will be coming to them
One week to a few days prior to surgery
- Contact Cheryl to confirm that the surgery is still on the schedule and that she has indeed flagged the tissue for pathology
- Contact the surgeon, Dr. Driscoll (ddriscoll@tuftsmedicalcenter.org) to give him a heads-up that you will be picking up the tissue. He is responsive to e-mail. Let him know that Amindsy Bertrand in the pathology department will be “clearing” the tissue for us. Remind him in the e-mail that the informed consent form has been waived for us and that Cheryl verbally asks the patients for consent prior to surgery.
- Contact Amindsy Bertrand (x65831) and/or Brian Rohan (x68007) to remind them that the tissue will be coming and give your contact information so they can call when the tissue is ready for pick-up
On the day of surgery
- Prepare a Tissue Information form for the incoming tissue to be entered into the Human Breast Tissue Log. See Adam for a copy of the form.
- Tissues specimens are numbered sequentially e.g. 651, 652, 653 according to the date of collection.
- When pathology calls about the tissue, make sure to request the following pieces of information regarding the patient:
- Age
- Height and weight (for BMI)
- Parity status (e.g. number of previous pregnancies)
- Birth control status (current use and past history of use)
- Whether the patient is pre-menopausal or perimenopausal/postmenopausal
- Go to the cutting room window on the 5th floor of Ziskind building with an ice bucket to collect the tissue. Note: to get to Ziskind 5, go into the hospital atrium and take the elevators (on right near the Dunkin Donuts) to the 3rd floor, turn left down the hall and follow signs to Ziskind 4, then take the stairs up one floor to Ziskind 5.
- Follow the RM Tissue Collection protocol to process and digest the tissue overnight (see Adam for a copy)
- Before starting to mince the tissue, REMEMBER TO:
- Embed a small piece of tissue (one from the right and one from the left breast) in OCT for cryosectioning
- Formalin-fix a piece of tissue (one from each side) for paraffin embedding
