Patent ID: 7780919

Claim:
A method for processing a tissue specimen in situ prior to histological examination, the method comprising: a) providing a tissue specimen having a predetermined examination face; b) disposing the specimen on a tissue positioning member for removably maintaining the tissue specimen with the examination face in a desired orientation thereon; c) processing the tissue specimen while maintaining the examination face in the desired orientation on the positioning member throughout processing; d) separating the tissue specimen from the tissue positioning member by application of a separation force for histological examination; e) maintaining the orientation of the examination face after the specimen is removed from the tissue positioning member wherein processing of the specimen includes contacting the specimen with fluids for dehydrating and clearing the specimen and subsequent casting of the specimen in an embedding material for forming a specimen-containing mold portion having the tissue specimen contained therein with the examination face in the desired orientation; and f) depositing the positioning member with tissue specimen thereon in a base member having a lower chamber sized to receive the positioning member for processing the tissue specimen and the tissue specimen is spaced away from the base mold for maintaining orientation of the tissue specimen without compression.