RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Outpatient percutaneous native renal biopsy: safety profile in a large monocentric cohort JF BMJ Open JO BMJ Open FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group SP e015243 DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015243 VO 7 IS 6 A1 Dario Roccatello A1 Savino Sciascia A1 Daniela Rossi A1 Carla Naretto A1 Mario Bazzan A1 Laura Solfietti A1 Simone Baldovino A1 Elisa Menegatti YR 2017 UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/6/e015243.abstract AB Objectives We aim to evaluate the safety of performing percutaneous native kidney biopsy (PKB) as an outpatient procedure (implying an observation period of 6 hours) compared with the traditional inpatient policy.Design, setting, participants and measurements Group I, in whom PKB was performed in the outpatient department (2012–2016) and followed by 6 hours’ observation period and then by regular outpatient visits and group II, in whom PKB was performed and followed by at least 1 day hospital admission. Group II included retrospectively retrieved patients who underwent PKB in our Institution between January 2000 and November 2012 as an inpatient procedure. All biopsies were performed by a single nephrologist following a structured protocol.Results 462 biopsies were reviewed, 210 (45.5%) of patients were women and the mean age was 54.7±17.9 years. One hundred and twenty-nine (27.9%) of these biopsies were performed in outpatients. A total of 36 (7.8%) of patients developed a complication, and of those, 9 (1.9%) suffered for a major complication (arteriovenous fistula (six cases, 1.2%), ischaemic stroke (2; 0.4%), thromboembolic pulmonary embolism (1; 0.2%)) and 27 (5.8%) for minor(macroscopic haematuria (12 cases, 2.6%), haematomas on sonography not requiring intervention (15 cases, 3.2%)). When comparing the complication rate between groups I and II, no statical difference was observed. When analysing together both groups, after multivariate analysis, serum creatinine >3 mg/dL (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.18 to 6.81) and known severe hypertension (OR 2.01, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.7) were found to be independent risk factors for minor and major complications, respectively. Conversely, we found no association of risk with the number of biopsy passes, gender, age, diagnosis, presence of haematuria before the kidney biopsy nor the degree of proteinuria.Conclusions Outpatient biopsy could be a valuable, safe and perhaps cost-effective method of obtaining diagnostic renal tissue in the majority of patients.