Observations on Percutaneous Renal Biopsy in Children

The first serious attempt to develop the technique of percutaneous renal biopsy was made by Iversen and Brun (1951), although its use had previously been reported by Perez Ara (1950).Alwall (1952) abandoned it following a fatality in 1944 but did not report his findings until eight years later.Kark and Muehrcke (1954) devised a more satisfactory biopsy technique in the prone position, using Franklin's modification of the Vim- Silverman liver biopsy needle (Kark, Muehrcke, Pollak, Pirani and Kiefer, 1958) and succeeded 48 times in their first 50 attempts.It was not long before the practical and academic potentialities of percutaneous renal biopsy in childhood were realized; Galakn and Maso( 1957) first reported its use in their study of nephrotic children.In the same year Vernier and his colleagues (Farquhar, Vernier and Good, 1957) published the first of a series of papers concerning renal biopsy in children.They have now performed over 250 biopsies, with 'no deaths which could be attributed to the biopsy procedure' (Vernier, 1960), and Dodge, Daeschner, Brennan, Rosenberg, Travis and Hopps (1962) have recently added a further 205 biopsies.The use of renal biopsy in children has so far received little prominence in reports from Great Britain.This paper records observations on the first hundred renal biopsies, performed personally upon children, using a technique based upon that of Kark and Muehrcke (1954).The main purpose of the paper is to indicate the practicability of the pro- cedure in children, and special reference is made to technical details which, it is believed, may contribute towards lessening the risks of failure and of danger to the patient.It is not intended to give a detailed pathological analysis, for the material obtained