Grossing separately received oriented margins for a skin ellipse

Grossing separately received oriented margins for a skin ellipse is a relatively common frozen section task.

General

• Margin are typically received in pieces with the orientation and an angular location in o'clock.
  • Example: Specimen A: 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock, Specimen B: 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock, Specimen C: 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock, Specimen D: 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock.
• Ideally, specimens should be inked in a manner that allows them to be identified with the ink colours.

Protocol

Short specimens

• Use four different colours for the dividers, e.g. blue = 12 o'clock, green = 6 o'clock, red = 3 o'clock, yellow = 9 o'clock.
  • In this schema: if Specimen A: 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock, Specimen B: 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock, Specimen C: 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock, Specimen D: 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock.
    • Specimen A: would have blue and red.
    • Specimen B: would have red and green.
    • Specimen C: would have green and yellow.
    • Specimen D: would have yellow and blue.

Long specimens

• Use four different colours for the dividers, e.g. blue = 12 o'clock, green = 6 o'clock, red = 3 o'clock, yellow = 9 o'clock.
• Use two different colours for the points bisection - points on opposite sides of the clock can have the same colour, e.g. orange = 1:30 o'clock and 7:30 o'clock, black = 2:30 o'clock and 10:30 o'clock.
  • In this schema: if Specimen A: 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock, Specimen B: 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock, Specimen C: 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock, Specimen D: 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock.
    • Specimen A: would have blue and red.
      • 12 to 1:30 would be blue and orange
      • 1:30 to 3:00 would be orange and red.
    • Specimen B: would have red and green.
      • 3 to 4:30 would be red and black.
      • 4:30 to 6 would be black and green.
    • Specimen C: would have green and yellow.
      • 6 to 7:30 would be green and orange.
      • 7:30 to 9 would be orange and yellow.
    • Specimen D: would have yellow and blue.
      • 9 to 10:30 would be yellow and black.
      • 10:30 to 12 would black and blue.

See also

• Oriented skin ellipse grossing.