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Liver
Review
Medical liver biopsy: background, indications, procedure and histopathology
  1. Alexander Boyd1,2,3,
  2. Owen Cain4,
  3. Abhishek Chauhan1,2,3,
  4. Gwilym James Webb2,5
  1. 1 Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  2. 2 Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  3. 3 Liver Unit, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  4. 4 Histopathology, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  5. 5 Hepatology, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Alexander Boyd, NIHR Birmingham Liver Biomedical Research Unit, Birmingham B15 2GW, UK; alexander.boyd3{at}nhs.net

Abstract

Histological analysis of liver tissue continues to play an important role in modern hepatological practice. This review explores the indications for medical liver biopsy in addition to the procedure itself, potential complications, preparation of tissue and routine staining. A broad selection of histological images is included to illustrate the appearance of liver tissue both in health and in several important diseases.

  • liver
  • histopathology
  • liver biopsy

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/flgastro-2018-101139

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors ADB: article planning, writing, editing, submission, revisions. OC: article planning, writing, image sourcing, editing. AC, GJW: conceived idea, article planning, editing.

    • Funding AC received funding from the Wellcome Trust and GW received funding from the Medical Research Council.

    • Disclaimer This paper presents independent research supported by the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Birmingham. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.