ABSTRACT
Introduction: Optimal orientation of minute mucosal biopsies is essential for a defi nite diagnosis in gastrointestinal pathology or to visualize neural plexuses in Hirschsprung disease. The problem of minute size of the biopsy and its orientation gets compounded when they are from neonates and mandates exhaustive strip cuts, thus delaying reporting. Aim: A modifi ed agar-paraffi n technique is aimed to make tissue embedding effi cient and user-friendly by inking mapping biopsies (one or more) either fresh or fi xed with surgical coloring inks followed by embedding fi rst in agar after orientation and followed thereafter by processing, re-embedding in paraffi n wax, sectioning and staining. Results: The tissues in agar paraffi n block were found to be well processed, fi rm, held secure and well preserved. The blocks were easy to cut, with serial sections of thickness 2-3 μ and easy to spread. The colored inks remained permanently on the tissues both in the block as well as on the sections which helped in easy identifi cation of tissues. Agar did not interfere with any stain such as Hematoxylin and Eosin or with histochemical stains, enzyme histochemistry or immunohistochemistry. Inking biopsies and pooling them in a block when obtained from the same patient reduced the number of tissue blocks. Conclusion: The modifi ed agar-paraffi n embedding technique is a simple reliable user friendly method that can greatly improve the quality of diagnostic information from minute biopsies by optimal orientation, better quality of sections, faster turnaround time and cost-effectiveness by economizing on the number of paraffi n blocks, manpower, chemical reagents and laboratory infrastructure