Kidney biopsy in the military hospital of Morocco : complications and histopathological findings

Abstract EN

Epidemiological studies on renal biopsies are necessary to establish the pattern and trends of renal diseases in a particular geographic area.

In this retrospective study, we reviewed the medical records, histopathology findings and complications of renal biopsy in a region of Morocco.

We studied a total of 130 native kidney biopsies taken between January 2008 and January 2012.

All biopsies were examined by light microscopy and immunofluorescence microscopy.

There were 86 males (66.2%) and 44 females (33.8%), with a mean patient age of 44.82 ± 17.86 (range 8–86) years.

The most common indications of renal biopsy was nephritic syndrome (61.5%), followed by renal failure of unknown etiology (30.8%) and asymptomatic urinary abnormalities (5.4%).

Primary glomerulonephritis (PGN) was found in 60 (46.2%) of the patients.

Among the PGN cases, the most common one was membranous nephropathy (MN) (12.3%).

Secondary glomerular disease (SGN) accounted for 48 (36.9%) of the cases.

The most common SGN was lupus nephritis (LN) (10%).

Tubulointerstitial disease [13 (10%)] and vascular disease [9 (6.9%)] were less common.

The most common complications of the procedure were pain at the biopsy site in 12.3%, gross hematuria in 12.3%, perirenal hematoma in 7.7% and hematuria requiring nephrectomy in 0.8% of the patients.

The most common indication for renal biopsy was nephrotic syndrome, MN was the most frequent PGN and LN was the most frequent SGN in our report.