Renal Biopsy

Percutaneous and surgical renal biopsies are used all over the world for the investigation of patients with renal disorders.1,2Although the indications and contraindications for doing the procedure have not changed much over the past few years, technical advances in doing the biopsy and in preparing the tissue for review and conceptual advances in interpreting what is seen3have made the procedure easier to do, safer to embark on, and more useful for patient and doctor. While biopsy of the liver is done in most hospitals, renal biopsy is done in relatively few centers. There are two reasons for this. First, the preparation and interpretation of the sections require the skilled attention of pathologists specially trained to deal with renal biopsies and second, and less important, is the fact that it is much more difficult to do a renal biopsy. Considerable training and experience are necessary before the