Telephone: Monday – Friday (0730 – 1730 hours) 9895 3477

After Hours 9895 3473

All specimens submitted for histopathological examination must be labelled and accompanied by a completed and signed request form.

Specimens should generally be placed in an adequate volume (at least 5x the tissue volume) of 10% buffered formalin prior to dispatch.

Any material to be discarded should be marked 'For Discard' or 'Audit Only' and be accompanied by a completed request card. Limbs should be wrapped in double yellow bags.

Certain specimens require special treatment and fresh specimens must be sent to the pathology laboratory immediately.

Specimens should be placed into a sterile, plain container with no fixative or formalin. These include: specimens involved in clinical trials, skeletal muscle, core biopsies of kidney, and lymph nodes from patients with known or suspected lymphoma or unusual infection, tissues requiring microbiological or virological examination in addition to histological assessment, and specimens requiring cytogenetic analysis. Whenever special investigation is required it should be clearly stated on the request form.

Consultation with the Anatomical Pathologist is recommended for these specimens.

A courier service can be provided for the collection of specimens from external clinicians, and taxis may be used for urgent specimens.

Note: Certain investigations such as flow cytometric analysis on lymph nodes require that the specimen be in the laboratory before 12 mid-day on the day of biopsy.

A frozen section examination of fresh tissue is available if an intraoperative provisional diagnosis is essential for immediate further management. Prior booking with the pathology laboratory at least 24 hours before operation time is required to ensure a pathologist is available. Out-of-hours frozen section examinations are available by consultation with the on-call pathologist (contact via 9895 3473).

For a frozen section examination the fresh tissue is sent immediately to the pathology laboratory in a labelled plain container with no fixative or formalin, accompanied by the request form. The request form should note the clinical and operative findings and also state a telephone number via which the frozen section result can be conveyed. The pathology laboratory should be notified on dispatch of the specimen from the procedure room. The pathologist performing the examination is available for consultation.