Risk of needle tract seeding after coaxial ultrasound-guided percutaneous biopsy for primary and metastatic tumors of the liver: report of a single institution

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of needle track seeding after ultrasound-guided percutaneous biopsy of indeterminate liver lesions with a coaxial biopsy system without any other additional intervention or ablation therapy.

METHODS: We identified 172 patients in a retrospective cohort study who underwent ultrasound-guided biopsy due to a liver mass in our institution between 2007 and 2016. The same coaxial biopsy system was used in all patients, no consecutive ablation was performed.

RESULTS: None of the finally included 131 patients developed neoplastic seeding. There was one major complication (0.76%), the rest of the complications were minor (3.8%) and did not require further intervention.

CONCLUSION: Needle track seeding is a rare delayed complication after percutaneous liver biopsy. Coaxial liver biopsy is a safe method to obtain multiple samples with a single punch in patients with primary or metastatic liver lesions.