Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffA liver biopsy is a procedure to remove a small piece of liver tissue, so it can be examined under a microscope for signs of damage or disease. Your doctor may recommend a liver biopsy if blood tests or imaging techniques suggest you might have a liver problem. A liver biopsy also is used to determine the severity of liver disease. This information helps guide treatment decisions.
The most common type of liver biopsy is called percutaneous liver biopsy. It involves inserting a thin needle through your abdomen into the liver and removing a small piece of tissue. Two other types of liver biopsy — one using a vein in the neck (transjugular) and the other using a small abdominal incision (laparoscopic) — also remove liver tissue with a needle.
- Bravo A, et al. Percutaneous liver biopsy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 18, 2009.
- Liver biopsy. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/liverbiopsy/. Accessed Sept. 18, 2009.
- Rockey DC, et al. Liver biopsy (AASLD position paper). Hepatology. 2009;49:1017.
- Sanchez WS, et al. Liver cirrhosis. American College of Gastroenterology. http://www.acg.gi.org/ patients/ gihealth/ pdf/ livercirrhosis.pdf 44k 08/Jan/2009. Accessed Sept. 18, 2009.
- Liver biopsy. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec03/ch023/ch023d.html. Accessed Sept. 18, 2009.
- Chopra S. Patient information: Liver biopsy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 18, 2009.
- Bravo A, et al. Transjugular, laparoscopic, and fine needle aspiration liver biopsy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 18, 2009.
