Transvenous liver biopsy: an experience based on 1000 hepatic tissue samplings with this procedure.

Transvenous liver biopsy was attempted 1033 times in 932 patients in whom percutaneous liver biopsy was contraindicated. A hepatic tissue specimen was obtained in 1000 out of these 1033 attempts. The specimen was unfragmented and/or large enough to allow correct evaluation of liver architecture in 518 of the 807 successful biopsies (64.2%) in patients with liver fibrosis or cirrhosis and in 191 of the 193 successful biopsies (98.9%) in patients with nonfibrotic lesion of the liver. Transvenous liver biopsy was followed by no or minor complication in all our patients except for one who suffered fatal intraperitoneal bleeding due to perforation of the liver capsule. It is concluded that transvenous liver biopsy is a workable, efficient, safe procedure for obtaining hepatic tissue specimens and that this method is essential in a department of hepatology.