[Peritoneoscopy and liver biopsy in the diagnosis of liver disease (author's transl)]

In two prospective studies including 962 patients and one retrospective study including 165 patients the problem was investigated, to what extend ultrasonography might change the diagnostic value of clinical examination, peritoneoscopy, guided liver biopsy and blind liver biopsy. It turned out, that liver biopsy is the method of choice in diffuse-parenchymatous disease (e.g. chronic active hepatitis, chronic persistent hepatitis, fatty liver), whereas laparoscopy is to be preferred if focal lesions (e.g. liver carcinoma) are present. Diffuse liver disease was present in 80% of the cases investigated; in this group of patients the diagnostic value of blind biopsy is equivalent to the diagnostic value of guided biopsy. Thus, blind biopsy does yield satisfactory results in most patients if it is possible to differentiate between diffuse and focal disease by ultrasonography. Such differentiation could be achieved in 77-98% of our cases, thus ultrasonography could intake a decrease in numbers of peritoneoscopies and an increase of blind liver biopsy.