“Is anesthesia risky for a liver biopsy?”

Every thing in life has risk. Anesthesia for a liver biopsy has risk but so does the biopsy itself. I can tell you that anesthesia is very safe and when I meet my patients that are having their first surgery or are afraid due to what they have heard or read on the internet, I remind them that by the time they get to the surgical site, they have already done the most dangerous thing they had to do that day. What they have done surprises them is so dangerous.... maybe 500 times more dangerous than anesthesia, they drove to their appointment! If I were getting a liver biopsy, I would be more concerned with the risks of the biopsy.... anesthesia should be safe. Remember that overall risks in medicine are low and these procedures have been done many times because they are relatively safe. In medicine we do not do procedures if your chances of a bad outcome are great unless there is no other option and only if it would be life preserving. Good luck!

Personally, I think a liver biopsy would be much more risky without anesthesia, unless you are talking about just a needle biopsy, which would just be a needle placement through the skin and into the liver to get a fe w cells of the liver, rather than getting a piece of it, as a biopsy would be.

Benefits far outweigh risks.

Anesthesia is usually not done during a liver biopsy, only local anesthetic in the skin, and the ribs.