Ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy in children. Five-year experience at a tertiary care center.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS

Percutaneous liver biopsy with histopathologic analysis is a valuable tool for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment evaluation of liver diseases. Its ultrasound-guided performance is useful, making the procedure safer and reducing the risk for complications and hospital stay. Our aim was to describe the indications, histopathologic study, and complications associated with the performance of ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy in pediatric patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included 102 ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsies performed on patients <16 years of age, within the time frame of January 2014 and December 2019. The information was obtained from electronic files and histopathologic studies and the data were analyzed through descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

A total of 102 procedures were carried out on 99 patients. Mean patient age was 72 months and 58.8% of the patients were female. Over 65% of the indications for liver biopsy included autoimmune hepatitis (23.5%), elevated liver enzymes (21.5%), and chronic liver disease (20.5%). Four patients presented with immediate complications (3.9%), three of which were major (2.9%), concurring with that reported in the international literature.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study corroborates the importance of ultrasound-guided liver biopsy in the diagnosis and follow-up of pediatric patients. The procedure also had a low complication rate of only 3.9%.