Kidney biopsy questions

[sassy]

My son's Neph is pushing he have a Kidney biopsy.  I'm not real sure that the treatment options will change because of it.  The Dr. seems to think his cause is Glomerulonephritis becasue he has very high protein levels in his urine and seems to think a biopsy will confirm that. He is not on dialysis yet - still has about 33% function left.  Just wondering how painful the procedure is and if it really made a difference on treatment for those who have had it done.  Thanks

[terry3004]

I had a kidney biopsy done shortly after I was diagnosed with ESRD.  What the biopsy will be able to do is to help your son's neph to find out better what is going on with his kidneys.  This will also be able to better assist his neph in determining what the future course of action is going to be.  Before the biopsy is done...the best thing that the neph can do is guess.

The procedure itself is not very painful.  They use a local anesthetic to numb the area and then go in with a needle to pull out a small section of the kidney.  They usually take two or three samples to make sure that they get a good tissue sample.

I was in and out the same day.  Usually, you are told to allow about 4-6 hours for the entire procedure, but I was there longer as my BP was too high for them to do the procedure and they had to get it down first.

[okarol]

Jenna never had a biopsy for her native kidneys so I don't know, but found this related thread http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=7832.0
 

[KICKSTART]

I guess we are all going to have different tales to tell about biopsy's . Although it wont determine treatment , it will give a clearer picture as to the state of things , i think most of us have had one or two of them . I have had two done , the first was horrendous as i didnt get enough local and so felt all the pain , because the first one was so bad they knocked me out for the second one , which obviously was great ! As for terry3004 comments about allowing 4-6 hours well i would question that ? For both my biopsy's i had an overnight stay in hospital because you have to lie flat on your back for 24 hours after it , to avoid a bleed from your kidneys , so im not sure how terry got away with 3-4 hours

[Sunny]

I had a biopsy to determine definitively the cause of my kidney failure which then allowed the doctors to determine a treatment course.
So a biopsy may absolutely be relevant depending on individual circumstances. I was given NO pain reliever because they claimed they needed
me alert so I could move around for them as need and tell them if it felt they were getting the right spots. Extremely painful! Then I was
required to lay perfectly still for 6 hours recuperating in the hospital bed because I was told kidneys could bleed easily due to bruising from
biopsies. Extremely difficult! I had to stay overnight. I would recommend doing what the doctor feels is necessary. If a biopsy is needed,
ask for local anesthesia and a mood relaxer to get through it. Good luck.

[Lori1851]

Dustin has had 2 biopsies. The later one confirmed what the DR thought FSGS. I think it helped knowing exactly what was wrong.
Lori/Indiana

[petey]

Marvin has had a biopsy twice -- once in his original kidneys and once in his transplanted kidney.  Both times, it was to determine the exact cause of his kidney failure (and then of his transplanted kidney's decline).  Both times, it was IGA Nephropathy -- the transplant got it, too!  Both times, he was already in the hospital and had lots of numbing medicine.  He didn't have excessive pain with either.  He did have to lie flat for about 4-6 hours afterwards.

[stauffenberg]

I  had two renal biopsies, both of which were surprisingly painful.  The thing they don't tell you about such biopsies is that they can do real damage to the kidneys, and in some patients the bleeding they cause inside the kidney can be very difficult to stop.  While biopsies represent the gold standard for diagnosis, many transplant follow-up clinics are extremely reluctant to order them because of the damage they can do to the kidney.

[Razman]

  The Dr. seems to think his cause is Glomerulonephritis ....

I was told that there are 2 main types of Glomerulonephritis and the biospy will tell the doctor what type your son has.  One can be handled better than the other with medication but the doctor needs to know the type.  I found that the biospy was no big deal and joked around with the nurses and doctors.