Objections to Liver Biopsy
  • The process is somewhat dangerous.  There has been one death in a thousand reported from this procedure.
  • The needle biopsy has a high error rate.  Corwin Edwards MD at our annual symposium in San Diego 1998 presented that there is a 13% error rate for this process.  That is that underlying iron might be missed by this operation.  If you undergo the liver biopsy and are found clear, you will not be treated for your iron overload.  The doctor will instead move to managing ever worsening symptoms while he casts about for another diagnosis.  Iron overload is fatal if left undetected or untreated.
  • Liver biopsy can add quite a bit of delay between the diagnosis and treatment.  First there is the initial appointment and consultation with the gastroenterologist.  Then later you have to undergo the procedure.  Then a local lab will read the results.  Next a more distant lab may confirm the results.  Really all that is necessary is to get right into protocol treatment.  The patient needs to outrun lethal jeopardys such as liver cancer, heart attack and stroke.
  • The invasive process is expensive - approximately $4,000-$6000 - even as an out office procedure.  The insurance industry and the medical community needs to hold down costs so that more people can might be served.
  • The results of the liver biopsy does not change how the patient is to be treated.
  • Newer imaging techniques are much improved in  recent years and offer more information non invasively.  They can see anomalies, surface variations, scaring, shape, size and other areas of concern.  A needle biopsy can not see these problems.
  • The liver will begin repairing and improving itself as soon as treatment starts.  The liver has wonderful recuperative properties and will regenerate itself if caught in time.  Even cirrhosis can be reversed with protocol treatment.  So the liver biopsy will only give you an assessment of how bad the liver was at the start.
  • In the fifteen years since we stopped recommending the liver biopsy The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have followed us in that lead.
  • If you were told that you could not be treated without a liver biopsy, then you need to find a different doctor.

                               

Copyright © 2002 by Iron Overload Diseases Association, Inc. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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