Transjugular Portosystemic Stent Shunt: Impact of Right Atrial Pressure on Portal Venous Hemodynamics Within the First Week

Purpose Porto-systemic pressure gradient is used to prognosticate rebleeding and resolution of ascites after TIPS. This study investigates the reliability of portal pressure characteristics as quantified immediately after TIPS placement and at short-term control. Patients and Methods Portal venous pressure (PVP) and right atrial pressure (RAP) were prospectively obtained before and after TIPS as well as ≥ 48 h after TIPS procedure. Porto-systemic pressure gradients (PSG) and pressure changes were calculated. A multivariate regression analysis was performed to predict portal hemodynamics at short-term control. Results The study included 124 consecutive patients. Indications for TIPS were refractory ascites, variceal bleeding or combinations of both. Pre- and post-interventional PSG yielded 16.4 ± 5.3 mmHg and 5.9 ± 2.7 mmHg, respectively. At that time, 105/124 patients (84.7%) met the target (PSG ≤ 8 mmHg). After 4 days (median), PSG was 8.5 ± 3.5 mmHg and only 66 patients (53%) met that target. In patients exceeding the target PSG at follow-up, PVP was significantly higher and RAP was lower resulting in the increased PSG. The highly variable changes of RAP were the main contributor to different pressure gradients. In the multivariate regression analysis, PVP and RAP immediately after TIPS were predictors for PSG at short-term control with moderately predictive capacity (AUC = 0.75). Conclusion Besides the reduction of portal vein pressure, the highly variable right atrial pressure was the main contributor to different pressure gradients. Thus, immediate post-TIPS measurements do not reliably predict portal hemodynamics during follow-up. These findings need to be further investigated with respect to the corresponding clinical course of the patients.

SURGICAL TREATMENT OF A CHILD WITH OVARICOVARICOCELE IN THE BACKGROUND OF PORTAL HYPERTENSION SYNDROME

A complex case report of the diagnosis and surgical correction of ovaricovaricocele (OVC) in a girl with portal hypertension syndrome is presented. The disease manifested itself with symptoms atypical for portal hypertension – dysmenorrhagia and persistent recurrent pelvic pain. The cause of OVC was thrombosis of the left renal vein after splenorenal shunt. Venous hypertension of the left kidney persisted even after creating a mesenteric-caval anastomosis and improving portal hemodynamics. Left-sided ovarian-caval shunt was made with a good clinical effect, which was confirmed by angiography.

Impact of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation on the central lymphatic system in liver cirrhosis

The puropse of this study was to evaluate associations of cisterna chyli (CCh) diameter with portal hemodynamics and the influence of TIPS-creation in cirrhotic patients. 93 cirrhotic patients (57 male, mean age 59 years) received CT prior to TIPS-creation. 38/93 additionally underwent post-interventional CT. CCh-diameter was measured. After categorization into patients with and without large venous collaterals (i.e. > 6 mm), data were analyzed regarding associations between CCh-diameter, clinical and portal-hemodynamic parameters and diameter-changes after TIPS-creation. Patient survival post-TIPS was analyzed. Median portosystemic pressure-gradient decreased from 20 to 9 mmHg after TIPS-creation. Large venous collaterals were observed in 59 patients. In 69/93 patients (74.2%) the CCh was detectable. Mean pre-interventional diameter was 9.4 ± 2.7 mm (large collaterals: 8.7 ± 2.0 mm, no large collaterals: 10.7 ± 3.2 mm, p = 0.003). CCh-diameter correlated strongly with pre-TIPS portal-pressure (Rs = 0.685, p = 0.0001), moderately with portosystemic-gradient (Rs = 0.524, p = 0.006), liver shear-wave-elastography (Rs = 0.597, p = 0.004) and spleen size (Rs = 0.501, p = 0.01) in patients without large collaterals, but not in patients with large collaterals. Post-TIPS CCh-diameter decreased significantly from 10.2 ± 2.8 mm to 8.3 ± 3.0 mm (p < 0.001). Patients without a detectable CCh on CT survived significantly shorter. The diameter of the CCh is associated with portal-pressure and decreases after TIPS-creation in cirrhotic patients, reflecting a portal decompression mechanism via the lymphatic system. Lack of larger central lymphatics detectable on CT may be associated with shorter survival.

Surgical Portosystemic Shunts: History, Evolution, and Current Applications

Mechanical obstruction, thrombus, intrinsic liver disease causing fibrosis or cirrhosis, or an outflow obstruction at the level of the sinusoids or hepatic venous obstruction can cause an increase in pressure or resistance, or both, leading to portal hypertension (PH). Portosystemic shunts (PSS) are usually performed to relieve the congestion that inevitably occurs in the setting of PH. Since their introduction, surgical PSS were often the treatment of choice to prevent recurrent bleeding in patients with clinically significant PH. Development of novel pharmacological therapies, continuous improvement of endoscopic approaches, the introduction of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, and advancements in transplantation has provided an evolution in the approach for PH and has precipitated the steady decrease in the proportion of patients needing surgical shunts. Despite this, PSS remain important tools in the surgeon's armamentarium, as they are often employed in the pediatric population with extrahepatic portal vein obstruction and are frequently being used for portal inflow modulation to achieve better portal hemodynamics in resections and transplantation. This has become of great relevance to decrease the risk of small-for-size syndrome and portal hyperperfusion in liver transplantation, and to decrease the risk of posthepatectomy liver dysfunction after major resections in hepatobiliary surgery.