Subcapsular local anesthesia approach in percutaneous liver biopsy: less pain, more comfort

To compare the subjective level of pain in patients who underwent an ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy (PLB) after either pericapsular anesthesia (PA) or subcapsular anesthesia (SA), based on the numeric rating scale (NRS).

A total of 323 patients, mean age 51, range 21–82 years; 160 (49.5%) male, referred to the Interventional Radiology Clinic of Kocaeli University Faculty of Medicine for image-guided PLB, between June 2019 and May 2020 were included and randomized into two groups by anesthetic type; the first (n = 171) consisted of patients undergoing SA while the second (n = 152) included patients undergoing PA. The intensity of pain at 0, 1, and 6 h after PLB was evaluated between the groups using NRS.

At hours 0, 1, and 6, the median [range] NRS scores in the subcapsular and pericapsular groups were 2 [1–2] versus 3 [2–4] (P < 0.001), 1 [0–1] versus 1 [1–2] (P < 0.001), and 0 [0–0] versus 1 [0–1] (P < 0.001), respectively. Subgroup analysis revealed that the patients who underwent the subcostal procedure with subcapsular anesthesia reported the lowest pain scores and intercostal procedure with pericapsular anesthesia reported the worst pain scores for each time point: 0 h 1 [1–2] versus 3 [3–4], P < 0.001; 1 h 1 [0–1] versus 1 [1–2], P < 0.001; and 6 h 0 [0–0] versus 0 [0–1], P < 0.001, respectively.

Subcapsular anesthesia is a well-tolerated procedure compared to a pericapsular procedure. Furthermore, the application of a subcapsular anesthetic with a subcostal approach was reported to result in the lowest pain and greatest patient comfort.