Needle tract implantation of hepatocellular carcinoma after ultrasonically guided needle liver biopsy: a case report.

Abstract

Cancer spread along the needle tract following fine needle biopsy is reported to be a rare complication. We report a case of subcutaneous implantation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following ultrasonically (US)-guided fine needle liver biopsy. The patient, a 53-year-old male was found to have a HCC at the medial segment of the liver confirmed by fine needle biopsy. Three year and four months after segmentectomy, the patient felt a subcutaneous growing lump at the previous biopsy site. The tumor was resected and confirmed histologically as HCC. We herein document other reports of such an occurrence following fine needle biopsy of HCC in Japan and consider this problem in liver biopsies.