Challenging TIPS in Liver Transplant Recipients: The Pull-Through Technique to Address Piggyback Anastomosis

The hepatic vein access during transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) can be challenging in liver transplant recipient patients, especially when piggyback anastomosis was performed. We described a modified technique and reviewed the clinical outcomes of TIPS in transplanted patients.

From 2015 to 2016, 8 patients with history of liver transplantation using a three-hepatic vein piggyback technique for venous anastomosis underwent a TIPS in our institution. Indications were refractory ascites (n = 7) or variceal bleeding (n = 1). When the hepatic vein access failed via the standard jugular route, a pull-through technique was used: After puncturing the right hepatic vein under ultrasound guidance, a guidewire and a vascular sheath were advanced, then the guidewire was snared in the inferior vena cava and retrieved though the jugular access, and the hepatic vein was catheterized along the guidewire. The safety and technical success rates of this technique and the clinical outcomes of the study population were retrospectively assessed.

Seven of 8 patients (87.5%) required the pull-through technique to access a hepatic vein. No complications of the percutaneous access of the hepatic vein were found at the one-day and one-month ultrasound Doppler examinations. Among 7 patients who had refractory ascites, 3 had complete resolution of ascites (43%), and one had moderate improvement. One patient with refractory infected ascites on severe graft failure and one with massive bleeding died soon after the procedure.

A pull-through technique following percutaneous puncture of a hepatic vein is a safe technique for performing a TIPS in liver transplant recipients with piggyback anastomosis complicated by acute hepatic vein angulation.