Biopsia hepática: diagnósticos histopatológicos más frecuentes en el Hospital general san juan de Dios, Guatemala.

Introduction: Liver biopsy (BH) remains a fundamental diagnostic technique in the study of liver diseases, in combination with various clinical and laboratory data. Objective: to know its usefulness and the diseases of the liver that were diagnosed in the histopathological study, at the Hospital General San Juan de Dios de Guatemala (HGSJDD), from 2014 to 2018. Methodology: descriptive and retrospective observational study in the Department of Pathology of the HGSJDD, in which cases of liver biopsies were identified. Results: Of 44,388 specimens received in the pathology department of the HGSJDD, from January 2014 to December 2018, 293 corresponded to liver biopsies (0.66%). Of these, 209 (71.33%) corresponded to adults and 84 (28.67%) to the pediatric population. In the adult population, 84 (40.19%) corresponded to neoplasms, with hepatocellular carcinoma being the most frequent 39 (46.43%), followed by metastatic adenocarcinoma 21 (25.00%). Of the 114 (54.55%) non-neoplastic cases, 30 (26.32%) corresponded to chronic unspecified hepatitis, which was the most frequent diagnosis. In the pediatric population, 3 (3.57%) cases were neoplastic, 2 of them were epithelial hepatoblastoma (66.67%). In non-neoplastic cases 77 (91.67%), the most frequent diagnosis was atresiating cholangiopathy 19 (24.68%). Conclusion: BH requires a very detailed study of its architecture, cytology, additional studies of histochemistry and immunohistochemistry, as well as clinical history and imaging studies.