Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt: a nonoperative approach to life-threatening variceal bleeding

Portosystemic venous shunts may be created nonoperatively with a Grüntzig balloon dilatation catheter using the transjugular route. The authors achieved technical success with this shunt in 15 of 20 patients with life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding from variceal hemorrhage. All patients but one were considered at high risk for surgery because of end-stage liver disease; the exception was a patient in whom two previous operative portosystemic shunts had failed. An average decrease of 5.9 mm Hg in portal vein pressure was measured in 11 patients for whom sequential pressures could be obtained. Two patients survived longer than 12 months without subsequent operative procedures, and the shunt helped temporize in three other patients who later underwent operation. Nine patients with successful shunts died within 30 days of the procedure, comparing favourably with reported operative death rates of 40% to 80% in emergency shunt procedures. Follow-up portal venograms demonstrated shunt patency in six of nine patients, in one after 8 months. Tract patency was determined in four of seven patients on whom autopsy was performed, up to 6 months after the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt was created.