The Patient Care Committee of the American Gastroenterological Association has published practice guidelines for outpatient liver biopsy. The patient must be able to return to the hospital in which the procedure was performed within 30 minutes after the onset of any adverse symptoms. Reliable persons must stay with the patient during the first night after the biopsy to provide care and transportation, if necessary. The patient should have no serious medical problems that increase the risk associated with the biopsy. The facility in which the biopsy is performed should have an approved laboratory, a blood-banking unit, an easily accessible inpatient bed, and personnel to monitor the patient for at least 6 hours after the biopsy.
Liver biopsy is a safe procedure when performed by experienced operators.
Froehlich et al. noted a lower complication rate for physicians who performed more than 50 biopsies a year. Prior localization of the biopsy site via ultrasound may decrease the rate of complications for physicians who perform liver biopsies infrequently. Although the liver has a rich vascular supply, complications associated with percutaneous liver biopsy are rare. Sixty percent of complications occur within 2 hours and 96 percent within 24 hours after the procedure. Approximately 1 to 3 percent of patients requires hospitalization for complications after a liver biopsy, especially if the procedure was performed with a Tru-cut biopsy needle.