am being referred at min 4 a liver biopsy and reading other peoples coments has really scared me. iv had hep c 9 years now. what is the easist procedure and what r the risks of having this done? am really needle phobic. and please tell me truthfully..... is it sore
The reason for a biopsy, is to confirm a diagnosis. The normal Needle biopsy alone is not as effective as a biopsy with Laproscopic procedure with the advantage of actually seeing the liver and where to take the sample. I had Laproscopic biopsy and two other needle biopsies at the same time. The laproscope showed where to sample in other areas.
A biopsy is not needed to confirm liver cancer. NO PAIN? LOL...Bobbie1952 had to be drugged not to feel pain. Plus never heard of a biopsy performed on the side.
There is also no reason to have a biopsy, just to "see how the liver is doing," after the original biopsy that finds a diseased liver.
Thank you sir, I had heard similar stories and wondered if they were and wondered if they were folk tales of a sort.
i think what you may be thinking of are reports that a needle biopsy of a liver tumor can spread cancer. there have been studies that when the tumor is pierced with the needle the cancer will spread. there have been cases where people feel fine, radiology finds a liver mass they do a biopsy and the person is dead in a few months. would they have lived longer if tumor left alone, most likely.......
Biopsies are necessary to assess degree of liver damage, and they do not cause cancer.
The standard method, a trans-cutaneous biopsy, where a needle is passed through the skin and into the liver, frightens the **** out of me.
I expressed this to my doctor, who ordered instead a trans-jugular liver biopsy. They use conscious sedation (fentanyl and attavan), and pass a wire into your juggler veininto and out of the right atrium of the heart, down the portal vein and sample the liver that way. Low risk of complication, it's requires several hours in the hospital, done in the cath-lab, and if there any bleeding (the most common side effect of the trans-cutaneous method) it is back into the vein, lessening the seriousness.
For me, it was the right choice.
Liver biopsy will not cause cancer or cause prolonged pain. Someone has given you a load of misinformation (spelled h0r$e$#!+).
Oh yeah. I never heard of taking a microscopic snip of your Liver causing Cancer or pain later on. If you get pain later on it is from something else.
I was fine, a few hours later I was running around.
There is nothing wrong with a biopsy. At most there is very little discomfort if any. All you feel is a little push on your side and that is it. Fibrascan is not mainstream in this country yet. It is extremely hard to get if you can get it at all.
Biopsy right now is the most accurate to tell you how much damage there is.
Bobby