Question 16

College answer

• Severe Right or congestive heart failure ( increases preload)
• Polycystic liver disease
• Caution in: portal vein thrombosis
• Pulmonary hypertension/tricuspid regurg
• Hepatopulmonary syndrome
• Active infection
• Tumor in shunt pathway

Complications:         (50% marks)

Peri-insertion:

• Technical failure
• Trauma to heart/liver
• Bleeding haemoperitoneum
• Bile leak
• Stent Migration

Post insertion:

• Encephalopathy
• Stenosis/obstruction of shunt (uncommon with modern stents)
• Portal or hepatic vein thrombosis
• Acute liver ischamia
• Infection: peritonitis, endotipsitis
• Heart failure
• Deterioration in hepatic function

Examiners Comments:

Candidates responses lacked specific details.

Discussion

In short, the rationale for a TIPS can be summarised as follows:

• Portal hypertension causes the majority of the morbidity from chronic liver disease
• This is due to raised portal pressure
• TIPS decompresses the portal circulation by allowing it to empty into the comparatively lower central venous circulation
• Ergo, TIPs should relieve the majority of the morbidity from chronic liver disease

Indications for TIPS include:

• Refractory ascites or hepatic hydrothorax
• Refractory rebleeding in variceal disease
• Hepatorenal syndrome
• Hepatopulmonary syndrome
• Bridge to liver transplant
• Hepatic vein thrombosis
• Hepatic veno-occlusive disease
• Portal vein thrombosis

Contraindications (from Boyer and Haskal, 2009) include

• Absolute contraindications:
  • Moderate to severe pulmonary hypertension
  • Congestive heart failure
  • Multiple hepatic cysts
  • Uncontrolled sepsis
  • Uncontrolled biliary obstruction
  • Total portal vein thrombosis (in the absence of any patent intrahepatic branches)
• Relative contraindications:
  • A MELD score above 18
  • Central hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Portal vein thrombosis (in the absence of an experienced operator)
  • Hepatic vein thrombosis
  • Severe coagulopathy or thrombocytopenia

Technical complications of TIPS procedure:

• Vascular access complications
• Hepatic damage (through-and-through puncture): risk of intraperitoneal haemorrhage is 1-2%
• Haemobilia (damage to the biliary tree)
• Shunt stenosis or thrombosis (it happens in up to 70%)
• Shunt migration
• Hepatic vein stenosis (this can sabotage a future transplant)

Complications from portal venous shunt:

• Worsening hepatic encephalopathy
• Shunt thrombosis or portal vein thrombosis (7-10%). If there is already a portal vein thrombosis, this risk appears to increase somewhat (Perarnau et al, 2010) - which probably reflects the overall prothrombotic diathesis.
• Bilirubin rise: the diseased liver doesn't even get a chance to metabolise it
• Ischaemic hepatitis: the liver gets much of its oxygen from the portal vein, and even in spite of the hepatic arterial buffer response there is a risk of ischaemic hepatitis.
• Haemolysis (due to the direct shearing effect of being in contact with the shunt)
• "Unmasked" cardiomyopathy: the TIPS returns splanchnic blood to the heart and acts as a volume challenge, and if there was pre-existing cardiomyopathy, it may be dramatically revealed in this manner.
• Tricuspid endocarditis (organisms may now travel directly from the leaky gut into the systemic circulation)
• Shunt infection may occur, where the shunt may become the source of infection. The term "edotipsitis" is supposed to reflect the fact that persistent bacteraemia resembles bacterial endocarditis. 

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