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. 2025 Aug 29;8(1):69.
doi: 10.1186/s42155-025-00586-3.

Portal vein stent to save the day

Panagiotis Grigoropoulos  1 , Vasilina Tsemelidi  2 , Orfeas Varvarelis  2 , Antonios Vezakis  2 , Achilles Chatziioannou  1 , Miltiadis Krokidis  3
Affiliations

Portal vein stent to save the day

Panagiotis Grigoropoulos et al. CVIR Endovasc. .

Abstract

Background: Post-operative portal vein stenosis/occlusion is a relatively common and life-threatening condition. Clinical outcomes depend on the early diagnosis and the appropriate management.

Case presentation: A 78-year-old female developed portal vein high grade stenosis after resection of an ampullary cholangiocarcinoma. The patient presented with acute liver failure and impaired coagulation function. Imaging confirmed transient ischemic changes of the hepatic parenchyma. Salvage attempt with a portal venous stent was decided to prevent irreversible liver damage. The procedure was successful with a satisfactory clinical outcome.

Conclusions: The paper offers a summary of the clinical benefit from percutaneous portal venous stent placement in case of post operative high grade portal vein stenosis in a patient with acute liver failure.

Keywords: Hepatic failure; Portal vein stenosis/occlusion; Portal venous stent; Whipple's procedure.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964. Consent for publication: Consent for publication was obtained for every individual person’s data included in the study Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a) Portography from a right-side access confirming the tight stenosis of the portal vein at the level of the portal bifurcation (arrow). b) Recanalization of the stenotic area and contrast injection confirmed extensive gastric varices (arrow head). c) Post stent deployment satisfactory flow with lack of perfusion in the varices.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a) CT scan prior to portal vein stent confirming portal vein occlusion and transient hepatic attenuation differences in the early portal phase (circle). b) Liver perfusion significantly improved with no further attenuation differences (circle) and patent portal vein
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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