Two‐hour Observation After Liver Biopsy in Children

Abstract

Objective: Following percutaneous liver biopsy performed at our institution on an outpatient basis, children traditionally were observed for 4 hours then discharged after verifying a stable hematocrit level. In June 2015, we adopted a quality improvement project with shorter 2-hour observation for patients with no known risks and the hematocrit test was abandoned. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical and economic outcomes of early discharge of children following liver biopsy. Methods: We analyzed data on 2 groups of children who underwent ultrasound-guided nontargeted core needle liver biopsy performed on outpatient basis. Group A (100 procedures with 4-hour postprocedural observation time and hematocrit test) was compared with group B (100 procedures with 2-hour observation without hematocrit test). Results: Group A consisted of 92 patients (43 boys; 49 girls) with a mean age of 11.1 years and mean weight of 52.6 kg. Group B had 92 patients (47 boys; 45 girls) with a mean age of 8.9 years and mean weight of 40.5 kg. The mean length of observation was 281 minutes (range 204–540 minutes) and 147 minutes (range 86–332 minutes) for groups A and B, respectively. The mean recovery charges were reduced by 35% per procedure in group B. The tissue obtained was sufficient for pathologic diagnosis in all procedures. There were no biopsy-related complications in either group. Conclusions: Enhanced recovery with early discharge of low-risk children after 2-hour observation following percutaneous liver biopsy can be safely implemented without adversely affecting the outcome. Shorter postbiopsy observation can be cost-saving and may potentially improve patient satisfaction.

Reducing Recovery Times in Outpatient Liver Biopsies

“…A reduced recovery time will help to decrease department cost and cost for the patient though there are not many studies performed to prove this. Alomari et al (2020) showed a 35% cost savings per procedure with a postprocedural observation time of 2 hours due to reduced facility fee cost and decrease in nursing staff utilization resulting in more efficient use of facility, space, and nursing staff. Nurses are an integral part of the liver biopsy process from the preprocedure interview, pre- and postprocedure assessments, along with their education and experience.…”