Brain and Spinal Cord

Abstract

In some respects, pathologic evaluation of specimens from the central nervous system (CNS) is less complicated than evaluation of other organs, because requests for margins and the need for extensive specimen dissections are unusual. On the other hand, CNS specimens are usually small, and care must be taken to preserve the tissue. Do not use all of the tissue by freezing the entire specimen. This is especially true for specimens of the spinal cord. These can be minute, yet major therapeutic decisions often depend on the results of the pathology studies. In all cases, it is essential to keep the clinical and radiological findings in mind when processing specimens from the CNS.