Tissues exempt from submission

The Medical Staff Executive Committee (MSEC) has approved the exemption of the following surgical specimens from routine or mandatory submission to the Department of Pathology. The attending clinician can choose to submit the specimen to pathology if s/he deems it clinically appropriate, and examination will be performed and a report will be issued.

• Bone submitted to the bone bank
• Bone removed as part of corrective or reconstructive procedures (e.g. rotator cuff repair, synostosis repair, spinal fusion)
• Cataracts removed by phacoemulsification
• Fat removed by liposuction
• Foreskin from circumcision of children under 12 years of age, unless otherwise specified
• Middle ear ossicles
• Aerodigestive (nasal, nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, oral, hypopharyngeal, laryngeal, tracheal) tissue removed for relief of obstruction (i.e. nasal cartilage/bone, uvula/soft palate, adenoid/tonsil) in which pathologic abnormality is not the indication for removal
• Saphenous veins harvested for coronary artery bypass
• Rib segments or other tissues removed to provide surgical access
• Teeth where there is no attached surgical tissue
• Normal finger or toe nails which are incidentally removed
• Skin or other normal tissue removed during cosmetic or reconstructive procedures (e.g. blepharoplasty, cleft palate repair, abdominoplasty, ) provided it is not contiguous with a lesion and the patient does not have a history of malignancy
• Tissue excised incidental to the procedure when disease is not expected (i.e., wound debridement with open fracture repair)
• Placentas from routine deliveries
• Foreign bodies without attached tissue, including:
  • Medical devices, including catheters, tubes, stents, that did not contribute to the patient’s illness, injury or death
  • Orthopedic hardware and other radio-opaque mechanical devices
  • Therapeutic radioactive sources, the removal of which shall be guided by radiation safety monitoring requirements
  • Foreign bodies such as bullets or other medicolegal evidence given directly to law enforcement authorities; however, the skin or viscera removed with the foreign bodies, should be sent to the Department of Pathology
• Easily identifiable foreign bodies (e.g., coins, beads, beans).
• Tissue removed for research use only subsequent to a previously signed informed consent stipulating that the tissue is for protocol (research) use and that no diagnosis will be rendered.