Intrahepatic portosystemic venous shunt via right renal vein successfully treated with balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration

Abstract

A 66-year-old woman with a history of alcoholic liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma was repeatedly hospitalized for the treatment of encephalopathy. Computed tomography demonstrated a portosystemic venous shunt which continued from portal branch P7 to the right renal vein. Since pharmacotherapy for encephalopathy was ineffective, balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (B-RTO) was performed to block the portal-renal flow. Hyperammonemia and encephalopathy improved remarkably after the procedure. Intrahepatic portosystemic venous shunt draining into the right renal vein is a rare condition. To the best of our knowledge, management of this type of shunt by B-RTO has not been previously described. We report this case accompanied by a short review of the related literature.