KIDNEY BIOPSY

[MR_RESPIRATORY]

When I was leaving my Nephro's office , he said, that I will need a biopsy very soon. When I tried to ask questions regarding the how and why's he did not reply. Now that I have had some time to stew about this, I am very upset and scared of the reason and the procedure involved.

Any information you can provide will be appreciated. I need to know why it is done, how it is done, is it done while awake or under while sleeping. Thank you for your help!!!

Mr_Respiratory

[myporkchop]

Hi Mr_Respiratory,

A renal biopsy is a procedure used to extract kidney tissue for the doctors to try and work out the type of kidney disease you have, how severe it is and what would be the best treatment for it.
It is done while awake and under local anesthetic which is injected by needle to numb the area on your back/spine. When they do the biopsy you may feel a pressure and a dull pain where the biopsy needle is inserted. You could also feel sore after the procedure for a couple of weeks.

My Mum was told she needed to think about having a kidney biopsy, this was due to the fact that the nephs wanted to know why her kidney function had declined so quickly within the last 6 months. She has been diabetic for over 45 years and they wanted to check whether it was diabetes that caused the kidney decline or something else, such as a tumour of some sort. They said they would be able to treat the tumour if she did have one, but with heavy medications. They also said that the biopsy may only tell them that her kidney decline has been caused from diabetes and therefore the procedure would of been a waste of time, going thru it only to find out what they already know. It was a tough decision at the time as of course we wanted to know what has caused this rapid kidney function decline, but then had to weigh up whether it was worth the risks.
In the end my mum decided not to go ahead with the biopsy. However, in your circumstances they may be very different to hers and it may be very helpful to know how best to treat your kidney's.

That is as much as I know. Hope this helps somehow. Take care

[Charlie B53]

I had my biopsy a couple three years ago.  I don't remember exactly.  I know since I spent the night in the hospital they had an IV in me, whether they used it or not I really do not remember.  Anyway, I know they told me 100 units of fentenyal and it felt like the Dr kept leaning against my kidney , pushing hard with his thumb. Since I could see what he was doing I can only describe what it felt like.  It didn't hurt.  In fact we were talking and laughing throughout the whole procedure.  Afterwards they kept me confined to bed for IIRC about 4 hours.  Something about kidneys can bleed very easily so they did not want me up, much less walking about.

As the fentenyal wore off I felt much like the football after a major league football kicker had used my side for punting practice.   The Nurse gave me something, but it didn't do much good. I was much better by the next morning but it still took a couple of days before I felt 'normal' again.

Dr told me later, 90% scar tissue.  I don't remember those long greek sounding words, only that it wasn't going to ever get any better.

[Simon Dog]

In many cases, a biopsy is the only way to know the etiology of your renal decline or failure.

I had mine with a local that did a very good job.  A target was placed on my back and I was cat scanned (at low resolution/low dose) to find the south pole of the kidney relative to the target, then the core sample was taken.

There was a little sting when the needle punctured the capsule surrounding the kidney as that is innervated and not infused by the local.   I was kept in the hospital on bed rest until the next AM in case of bleeding.  I didn't have any bleeding but there would not have been time to get me to the hospital to remedy the problem if I did start to bleed out.  I had one incident of hematuria a day after I was home from the hospital, but told not to worry about it by the MD.   I was fortunate that i did not have any post biopsy pain, though the MD told me it might feel like I had taken a hard punch.

The local hospital sent my renal sample by cab to the "big name hospital" in Boston that has a dedicated renal pathologist on staff.

I would rate the kidney biopsy as more of a pain that a bone marrow biospy (because I was able to walk out of the office immediately after the later with no hospital stay), but definitely less painful than the bone marrow biopsy.   I've been told a prostate biopsy is definitely worse than renal biopsy.

[Fabkiwi06]

I have had two at age 15. The first one at a local hospital and they kept me up for  it. I was less than thrilled with that one - but had the hands down best nurse on the face of the planet caring for me. The second was at the Mayo Clinic for a second opinion and they put me under. I think I had a harder time with the sedative than the actual procedure. Both times I spent an overnight in the hospital.