| Job Category |  | Healthcare Practitioners & Technical |
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| Job Description | | According to the National Society for Histotechnology (NSH), "histology is the science dealing with the structure of cells and their formation into tissues and organs. Histotechnology is a structural science concerned with the demonstration of cellular morphology, chemical composition, and function of normal and abnormal tissue. The histologic technician freezes, and cuts tissue, then mounts them on slides and stains them with special dyes to make them visible under the microscope. The tissue may be of human, animal, or plant origin. In the case of human tissue, frozen section technique can provide rapid surgical consultations to the Operating Room when a quick diagnosis or feedback relating to surgical margins would be advantageous to the surgeon. Sections from chemically processed tissues (which are denatured, not frozen), enable pathologists to identify signs of disease, illness or malignancies (cancer) as well as signs of normality or improvement.
Histologic technicians (HTs) and histotechnologists (HTLs) are members of a laboratory team who employ histologic technology to diagnose diseases, to conduct research, or to instruct others in the science. Histotechnologists play a fundamental role in the allied health profession. A histotechnologist will prepare very thin slices of human, animal or plant tissue for microscopic examination. This is an important part of scientific investigation used in establishing and confirming patient diagnosis. These techniques make the invisible world of tissue structure visible under a microscope.
The tasks performed by the histotechnologist require patience, mechanical ability, and knowledge of biology, immunology, molecular biology, anatomy and chemistry. It requires five basic steps, each an integral part of the histotechnologist’s job.
---Grossing and Fixation – Tissue specimens taken from routine surgical cases, autopsies, or other scientific investigations are examined, described and trimmed to proper size. This process is referred to as grossing the specimen. The resulting specimens are preserved in solutions designed to prevent decomposition. This is known as fixation.
---Processing – Water is removed from the tissue and replaced by melted paraffin wax. The wax infiltrates the tissue and provides the support when the tissue is being cut into thin slices to be examined under a microscope.
---Embedding – Before the wax permeated tissue can be cut it is placed in a larger wax block for additional holding support during sectioning.
---Sectioning – The tissue is mounted onto a delicate instrument called a microtome. An extremely sharp knife is used to cut sections of the tissue embedded in the wax block. These sections are cut one after another to form a ribbon, which is floated on warm water to soften and flatten tissue sections. These sections are then placed on microscopic slides and stored for future procedures.
---Staining – Staining causes tissue components to change colors when brought into contact with different chemicals. In addition to dyes, antibodies are reacted with tissues to identify specific tumor cell lines with a method called Immunohistochemistry. This technique is critical to guiding the patient’s physician in selecting the most effective tumor treatment. DNA probes are also applied to tissue sections to identify the presence of bacterial and viral infections and some tumors. When staining is completed, the tissue section is ready for examination under a microscope by a pathologist or other scientific investigator. Without specialized staining techniques, many tissue components would remain invisible."
According to the ASCP, the histotechnician must work quickly and under pressure since the answers may be needed while the patient is in surgery. Working closely with the pathologist, the histotechnician freezes and cuts the tissues, mounts them on slides and stains them with special dyes to make the cell details visible under the microscope. Information from the section of tissue biopsy tells the pathologist and the surgeon if disease is present and if it has spread. The best course of treatment for the patient is then determined. |
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| Working Conditions | | According to the ASCP, histotechnicians have an unlimited choice of practice settings. Hospitals, for-profit laboratories, clinics, public health facilities, and industry currently have positions open for qualified histotechnicians. Other opportunities are in industrial research, veterinary pathology, marine biology and forensic pathology.
The NSH says that most HTs and HTLs work forty hours a week. Since hospitals are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, HTs and HTLs may work nights or rotating shifts. They may work weekends and holidays and have days off in the middle of the week. |
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| Salary Range | | According to the 2005 ASCP Wage and Vacancy Survey, the median salary for histotechnicians is $40,248 per year in the northeast. Median annual earnings for histotechnologists are $49,358 per year. |
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