During liver biopsy, doctor takes a small sample of tissue from your liver. This tissue is studied and tested in lab.
Your blood test may show that you may have chronic liver disease. A liver biopsy will tell your doctor more about this disease and how much damage has been done to your liver.
Liver biopsy can be performed by standard approach (by passing a needle directly through the body wall and into the liver) or by trans-jugular approach. The trans-jugular approach is favoured in patients who have high bleeding risk because it does not require passing a needle through the liver capsule (the surface of the liver).
An interventional radiologist uses ultrasound and X-rays to puncture the jugular vein and advance a small sheath into the vein draining the liver (hepatic vein). Through the sheath, a biopsy needle is passed through the vein wall and into the surrounding liver tissue to obtain samples. By using this technique, any bleeding that occurs from the biopsy will bleed into the hepatic vein, meaning no loss of blood by the patient.
Conscious sedation.
There is still some risk of bleeding (2%), if the biopsy needle passes into an artery or beyond the liver capsule.
181019_Radiology_Preps_Angiography-Transjugular-Liver-Biopsy-English (pdf)
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