An Update of the Histopathological Pattern of Liver Biopsies at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital

Worldwide, liver disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Its pattern can be updated by periodic data collection and analysis.

To update the existing histopathological pattern of liver diseases at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria.

This was a descriptive cross-sectional retrospective study of all cases of liver biopsies diagnosed histologically between 1st of January, 2012 to 31st of December, 2019. Data was obtained from the surgical pathology register and the age, sex and pathological diagnoses of the lesions analysed.

Liver biopsies were reported for a total of 68 patients during the 8-year study period. The ages of the patients ranged from 2 months to 75 years with a mean age and standard deviation of 28.88 ± 23.21 years. The 3 most common histopathological diagnoses were infectious liver disease (38.23%), malignant neoplastic lesions (26.47%) and cholestatic liver disease (16.17%), with the peak age of infectious liver disease (30-39years) preceding that of malignant liver disease (60-69years) by 3 decades.

This study shows that chronic hepatitis B infection was the commonest histologic finding of liver biopsies at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. Screening, vaccination and prompt treatment of hepatitis B infection are recommended to reduce the burden of liver disease. Liver biopsies have been updated to include biliary cirrhosis, biliary atresia, cystic liver diseases and glycogen storage disease thus expanding the scope of histopathological diagnosis that could be made on liver tissue biopsies in this environment.