A fibroscan is a scan of your liver which measures how elastic (or how stiff) your liver is. It is a painless procedure which involves a probe being passed over the top right area of your abdomen. It is similar to an ultrasound scan during pregnancy and will be carried out during your outpatient clinic appointment.

A healthy liver should be soft and elastic. The more stiff your liver is the more damage has been done to it.

Dr Markus Gess carries out fibroscans as an outpatient. Find out more about Dr Gess here.

The benefit of having a fibroscan is that it measures how elastic your liver is. This can help your doctor to diagnose how damaged your liver is and decide what treatment you might need. It is helpful for diagnosing the degree of liver damage in people with:

  • Viral hepatitis B and C
  • Alcoholic liver disease
  • Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
  • Hepatitis C and HIV co-infection

There are no risks to having a FibroScan at Kingston Private Health. Similar to undergoing a conventional liver ultrasound exam, outpatient FibroScan testing is quick, painless, easy, and provides a non-surgical alternative to the traditional liver biopsy to assess liver damage

If you do not have the fibroscan it will be more difficult for your doctor to accurately diagnose the condition of your liver which means they may not be able to decide the best treatment for you. This could mean that eventually your liver will become seriously damaged.

An alternative to having a fibroscan is to have a liver biopsy, however this is an invasive procedure which involves a needle being inserted into your liver to remove a very small piece of it. A liver biopsy carries risks such as bleeding.