Impact of the size of liver biopsies on the evaluation of chronic liver disease –a study by artificial sampling

Abstract

Chronic liver disease is a disease process of the liver that involves progressive destruction and regeneration of the liver parenchyma leading to fibrosis and cirrhosis. We first evaluated the 70 percutaneous liver biopsies from patients with a clinically established diagnosis of chronic hepatitis and chronic liver diseases of various etiologies. All biopsies were obtained through percutaneous approach using 16 F biopsy gun (manufactured by Bard) in adults and 18 F in children. . The mean biopsy size was 1.8cm ± 0.20 and a median size was 2cm. Out of the 70 liver biopsies, a total of 24 (34.2%) liver biopsies were less than 1.5cm in size, and 46(65.7%) were ≥ 1.5cm.