Complications and Efficiency of Liver Biopsies using the Tru-Cut Biopsy Gun

Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the complications and quality of the specimens of percutaneous liver biopsy in patients with chronic viral hepatitis who were scheduled for treatment and also to evaluate the contribution of the knowledge of ultrasound guided (USG) biopsy localization to the existing data.

Methodology: Liver biopsies conducted at our clinic between 2003 and 2008 were retrospectively evaluated. In 53.8% of the cases, hepatobiliary USG was performed to mark the localization of the biopsy site. An automatically triggered Tru-Cut biopsy gun was used.

Results: Biopsies waere taken from the livers of 236 patients (46.6% male, 53.4% female) with a mean age of 47.1 ± 12.5 years. The majority of patients had hepatitis C (61.9%); 1.6% experienced major complications (3 patient biliary peritonitis, 1 patient liver bleeding); 52.1% of the samples were ≥ 1 cm in length; And 69.7% of the biopsy samples with specified portal area had ≥ 4 portal areas. There was no statistically significant difference between the  patients with localized and non-localized biopsy site in terms of major complications and length of biopsy samples ( respectively p = 1.000, p = 0.209 ).

Conclusion: We believe that percutaneous liver biopsy using Tru-Cut biopsy gun can be peformed safely, with complications in 1.6% of the procedures. The length of the biopsy specimen is shorter than ideal values. Evaluation of the patients with and without USG-guided biopsy revealed no significant difference in terms of major complications and specimen size.