Tissue gouged or chunk cut out is typically the result of which cause?

• A. Roughing in advancing too far
• B. Under dehydration
• C. Over fixation
• D. Too little embedding

Answer: (A)

A gouge or chunk of tissue is most often caused by advancing the knife too far during roughing in. When you push the block edge too far toward the blade, the edge can bite into the tissue and remove a piece rather than produce a clean section, especially because the tissue may not be fully supported yet by the surrounding paraffin. To prevent this, advance in small steps and keep the block just under the blade edge with a properly sharp knife and correct cutting angle. Dehydration, fixation, or embedding problems affect tissue hardness and support in other ways, but they don’t typically produce this specific gouging artifact.