[The impact of secondary insertion of ePTFE-coated stent on sustainable TIPS patency]

Retrospective evaluation of the effect of secondary insertion of ePTFE-coated stent in the treatment of TIPS dysfunction versus other current options (simple angioplasty, insertion of additional non-coated stent). PATIENT SET AND METHODOLOGY: From the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2004, there were 121 interventions for TIPS dysfunction performed in our centre in which a non-coated stent was used to make up the shunt at the time of intervention. Depending on the type of intervention, the patient set was divided in 4 groups: simple angioplasty (52 cases, 43%), insertion of non-coated stent (35 cases, 28.9%), insertion of non-dedicated ePTFE-coated stent (15 cases, 12.4%), and insertion of dedicated ePTFE-coated stent (19 cases, 15.7%). All patients were monitored on a regular basis after the intervention for shunt patency with the use of clinical examination and Doppler ultrasonography, or also portal venography. Primary shunt patency after the intervention was evaluated in all four groups by Kaplan-Meier analysis. The primary shunt patency results after the intervention were compared with the use Cox F text and logrank test.

The intervention was successful in 120 cases (the overall technical success rate of all interventions was 99.2%). The primary shunt patency was 49.7 % after 12 months and 25.3 % after 24 months following sole angioplasty intervention; 74.9% after 12 and 64.9% after 24 months following intervention involving the insertion of non-coated stent; 75.2 % after 12 months and 64.5% after 24 months following intervention involving the insertion of non-dedicated ePTFE-coated stent, and 88.1% after 12 months and 80.8% after 24 months following intervention involving the insertion of a dedicated ePTFE-coated stent. A statistically significant improvement in shunt patency was obtained in the group of interventions involving the insertion of dedicated ePTFE-coated stent and in the group of interventions involving the insertion of non-coated stent as compared with the group of interventions involving sole angioplasty (p < 0.01).

From among all the currently used methods of therapeutic intervention for TIPS dysfunction, the best, the best subsequent TIPS patency was obtained after intervention involving insertion of dedicated ePTFE-coated stent.