Hepatic encephalopathy associated with extensive portal-hepatic venous shunts: a case report

Extensive intrahepatic portal-hepatic venous anastomosis is very rare. This report describes a 47-year-old man with cirrhosis who presented with mental confusion and flapping tremor, and in whom percutaneous transhepatic portography and superior mesenteric angiography demonstrated shunting between the portal vein branches and the right hepatic vein. Measurements of pressure, ammonia, and immunoreactive insulin in blood of the portal and right hepatic veins clearly indicated that a large amount of portal vein blood was being shunted into the right hepatic vein. These findings suggest that hepatic encephalopathy in this patient is accounted for at least in part by an intrahepatic portal-hepatic venous shunting.