Delayed hemorrhage after percutaneous liver biopsy

Clinically significant hemorrhage immediately after percutaneous liver biopsy is an uncommon, although well-recognized risk of the procedure. However, hemorrhage from the biopsy site delayed a day or more after the procedure is a seldom-appreciated potential complication. Delayed hemorrhage from the liver biopsy site may go unsuspected; in fact, the patient may no longer be under direct medical surveillance. We describe two cases of such delayed hemorrhage which we attribute to intrahepatic hematoma at the site of biopsy. Neither patient had a prebiopsy contraindication to the procedure. One patient suffered a fatal intraperitoneal hemorrhage 15 days after liver biopsy, the other a massive, but nonfatal intrahepatic hemorrhage 41 hours after the procedure. In the first patient, a hemorrhagic diathesis developed in the immediate period after biopsy; no predisposition to hemorrhage could be identified in the latter patient, even retrospectively. The admittedly rare possibility of delayed hemorrhage should be considered whenever a liver biopsy is performed.