Evaluation of Percutaneous Liver Biopsy Complications in Patients with Chronic Viral Hepatitis

Abstract

Objective: Liver biopsy is still the gold standard for the determination of liver fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity. It is an invasive method and may lead to severe complications. The aim of this study was to determine the evaluation of percutaneous liver biopsy complications in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. Materials and Methods:1165 patients, who were followed with the diagnosis of chronic viral hepatitis and who were applied percutaneous liver biopsy between January 2000 and February 2013 at the outpatient clinic of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, were included in the study. Results:Of 1165 patients who underwent liver biopsy, 196 (86 male, 110 female) were diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C, 969 (559 male, 410 female) were diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B. The mean age was 43.3 and 55.4% were male. 11% of the patients were diagnosed with chronic renal failure and underwent haemodialysis. Minor complication rate was about 20% (severe pain required usage of analgesic drugs in 19.8%, abdominal pain in 22.6%) whereas major complication rate was 1.15% (pneumothorax in 0.17%, heamobilia in 0.08%, hematoma in 0.9%). We did not observe severe complications such as fever, abscess, anaphylaxis, bacteraemia, organ perforations, sepsis or death. Conclusion:Despite being an invasive procedure, percutaneous liver biopsy can be considered a safe method because of the low rates of severe complications observed in our patients.

Liver Biopsy is the Gold Standard at Present, How about Tomorrow?

“…Liver biopsy is still considered the gold standard for this purpose. However, although rare, apart from severe complications such as bleeding, biliary perforation and peritonitis, pneumothorax or death, it has some other drawbacks including inaccurate staging due to sampling errors (needle biopsy samples only 1/50.000 of the liver), lack of standardization of staining, observer-dependent diagnostic variations (inter or intra observer), and financial burden (1,2,3,4). Moreover, patients undergoing liver biopsy may require hospitalization, thus, more than 90% of complications are likely to happen during the first 24 hours after biopsy (3).…”

Tedavi görmemiş sirozu olmayan hepatit B virüs enfeksiyonu olan erkek hastalarda fibrozis şiddetini öngörmede laboratuar indekslerinin değerlendirilmesi

“…Accurate evaluation and staging of liver fibrosis is substantial for predicting prognosis and selecting treatment options in patients with viral hepatitis [1][2][3][4] . Percutaneous liver biopsy is still defined as the gold standard in determining severity of liver disease [1][2][3][4][5][6] .…”

“…Accurate evaluation and staging of liver fibrosis is substantial for predicting prognosis and selecting treatment options in patients with viral hepatitis [1][2][3][4] . Percutaneous liver biopsy is still defined as the gold standard in determining severity of liver disease [1][2][3][4][5][6] . But, liver biopsy may cause complications such as moderate pain, bleeding, biliary perforation and peritonitis, pneumothorax or death and have drawbacks including patient discomfort, need for hospitalization and repeated biopsies for defining the therapy response or predicting prognosis in the posttreatment follow-up period, sampling error, lack of standardization of staining, inter or intra observer diagnostic variations and its high cost 1,[4][5][6][7][8][9] .…”

“…Percutaneous liver biopsy is still defined as the gold standard in determining severity of liver disease [1][2][3][4][5][6] . But, liver biopsy may cause complications such as moderate pain, bleeding, biliary perforation and peritonitis, pneumothorax or death and have drawbacks including patient discomfort, need for hospitalization and repeated biopsies for defining the therapy response or predicting prognosis in the posttreatment follow-up period, sampling error, lack of standardization of staining, inter or intra observer diagnostic variations and its high cost 1,[4][5][6][7][8][9] . Hence, there are non-invasive predictive models increasingly used for determining liver fibrosis degree 1,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] .…”

Does Operator Experience and the Q‐Box Diameter Affect the Repeatability of Liver Stiffness Measurements Obtained by 2‐Dimensional Shear Wave Elastography?

“…Liver fibrosis is associated with the severity of chronic liver disease, and an accurate evaluation of the fibrotic stage is of great importance for diagnosing and treating the disease . Previously, a commonly used method for the clinical diagnosis of liver fibrosis was biopsy, which is not widely implemented because of its invasive nature …”