Histological preparation of large vertebral specimens.

A histological method is described for processing human lumbosacral vertebral specimens through fixation, decalcification, dehydration and embedding in a mixture of low viscosity nitrocellulose and celloidin. The large blocks thus obtained were serially sectioned on a Jung Tetrander microtome at a section thickness of 100 microns. Shrinkage of 8.6% was observed for the mounted specimens by comparing the unprocessed specimens (by X-ray measurement) with the mounted sections (measured using a transparent ruler). A horizontally sectioned lumbosacral joint is used to illustrate the excellent histological detail obtained of the anatomy at this level of the spinal column.