recent liver biopsy- with rt.shoulder pain- 12/27/2010

[joannehepc]

does anyone know why the pain went from the liver biopsy area to the rt. shoulder are?


This discussion is related to SEVEN BIOPSIES???.

[mikesimon]

I've never had any pain and I have undergone 7 or 8 liver biopsies.
People respond differently but most of the people I know haven't had any problems.

Mike

[dee599]

I just had a liver biopsy done on Monday...Jan 31st,  I was told by my doctor that the pain in your right shoulder and neck happened because of blood that gets on a nerve during the biopsy!!  but i really don't care why it hurts!!   I WILL NEVER HAVE THIS DONE AGAIN!!!   IT WAS THE MOST  TORTURE THAT I HAVE EVER BEEN THROUGH!!!  They gave me IV Hydromorphone after the procedure!  I had the diopsy done at about 7:45am  at 8am they gave me 1 mg of pain med. at 8:05 they gave me another1mg. at 9:05 they gave me 2more mgs. at 11:10 2 more mgs. and at 2:10pm they gave me another 1 mg then they forced me to leave the hospital and go home in all of that pain!!!   That was the worse thing that I have ever been through and I have had 3 kids and 2 of those births were C-Sections!!!

[mikesimon]

"...The right-shoulder pain after liver biopsy is well known to clinicians that perform these procedures but has never been fully characterized. In this regard, there are two observations in this study worth noting. The first is that right-shoulder pain is at least as common as, if not more common than, biopsy site pain. The second is that the course of the evolution of pain over time in both sites follows a similar pattern. In other words, pain in the right shoulder begins, reaches its peak, and subsides together with the biopsy site pain. This may indicate that the right-shoulder pain is likely to be a viscerosomatic referred pain, rather than an indication of a severe complication, such as intraabdominal bleeding. Partial support for this idea is provided by a previous study (13) in which a normal follow-up ultrasound was found in 10 patients who complained of postbiopsy pain. The conclusion of that study was that “post biopsy pain may not emanate from intraabdominal bleeding or diaphragmatic irritation.” The biopsy site pain is likely to be a nociceptive pain that originates from the skin, the nociceptive innervated liver capsule (14), or both. ..."

http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/content/96/5/1392.full