ABSTRACT
Introduction: The field of medical technology is ever evolving which necessitates traditional techniques replaced by newer technologies. Contrary to this histotechniques in histopathology has remained static with hardly any changes where tissue preparation for microscopic examination still remains time consuming. However recent emergence of automatic tissue processor and microwaves has successfully reduced the time from several days to 1-2 days. Materials and Methods: 133 different tissue blocks from the department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology were used in the current study. Each tissue received was fixed in 10% formalin overnight, sectioned into approximately two halves. One tissue was sent for routine processing whereas the other was sent for microwave processing. After processing the sections were embedded, section and stained with H and E. A pathologist evaluated the stained slides and the results so obtained were analyzed statistically. Results: Microwave processing considerably cut down the processing time from days to merely hours. Microwave stained slides showed no loss of cellular and nuclear details, uniform-staining characteristics and was of excellent quality. Conclusion: The cellular details, nuclear details and staining characteristics of microwave stained sections were better than or equal to the routine stained sections. The overall quality of microwave-stained sections was found to be better than the routine stained sections in majority of cases