Image-Guided Liver Biopsies Reduce Complications
Proper diagnosis of most liver diseases requires physicians to conduct surgical biopsy of the liver. Discomfort and pain are common complications, requiring hospitalization in about four percent of patients.1
- But complications and hospitalization rates drop significantly when physicians use ultrasound to guide the biopsy – thus allowing patients to avoid pain and return to their regular routines sooner.
- One study found that 62 percent of patients who received ultrasound experienced no complications at all versus 48 percent whose biopsy was done without ultrasound (see graphic).2 About 2 percent of non-ultrasound patients were hospitalized – with average length of stay of 3.5 days – versus 0.5 percent of ultrasound patients.
| Ultrasound guidance in liver biopsies reduces complications and hospitalization, allowing workers to recover more quickly. As a result, Pasha et al concluded that ultrasound-guided liver biopsies are cost-effective and, in some cases, cost-saving. This graphic shows the percentage of patients who had no complications, minor complications, and major complications, along with the average cost of treatment for each outcome. Graphic and data from Pasha et al, Hepatology, May 1998 |
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1 "The Role of Ultrasonography and Automatic-Needle Biopsy in Outpatient Percutaneous Liver Biopsy," Lindor KD, Bru C, Jorgensen RA, Rakela J, Bordas JM, Gross JB, Rodes J, McGill DB, Reading CC, James EM, Charboneau JW, Ludwig J, Batts KP, Zinsmeister AR, in Hepatology, Vol. 23, No. 5, 1996, p. 1079, May 1996.
2 "Cost-Effectiveness of Ultrasound-Guided Liver Biopsy," Pasha T, Gabriel S, Therneau T, Dickson R, Lindor K, in Hepatology, Vol. 27, No.5, 1998. Also see Lindor et al, HepatologyΒΈ Vol. 23, No 5, 1996.
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