A template for a clinico-pathological audit of medical liver biopsies

Aims With changing indications for performing medical liver biopsies, we aimed to develop a tool to allow pathologists to evaluate the current usefulness, value and impact of their medical liver biopsy service. Methods We designed and piloted a questionnairebased clinico-pathological audit for medical liver biopsies. Results The audit tool was simple to implement and provided useful information about our service. Hepatologists felt that 96% of reports were clinically useful. 56% of biopsies confirmed clinical diagnoses, 46% helped differentiate between diagnoses and 42% were able to exclude possible diagnoses. 74% resulted in a change of management and 27% of liver biopsies resulted in a diagnosis which was not clinically suspected. Conclusions We demonstrate the usefulness of an audit tool in providing evidence of the value of the liver pathology service in a large UK regional centre.