The influence of liver outflow veins diameter on postoperative portal venous pressure and graft patency in Budd-Chiari syndrome patients after atrial caval shunting

Abstract

Objective To investigate the influence of diameter of liver outflow vein on portal hypertension and artificial blood vessel (ABV) patency rate in Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) patients undergoing atrial caval shunting (ACS).Methods We recruited 209 patients,who had undergone ACS for Ⅱ type of BCS.Those patients with unobstructed liver outflow vein were included into group A and the patients with stenosed liver outflow vein into group B.Free portal pressure (FPP) was measured before and after ABV opening.Portal vein velocity (Vpv),liver function,spleen volume and function,esophagogastric varices and ABV patency were evaluated postoperatively.Results After ABV opening,FPP decreased significantly in group A than group B (t =10.45,P ＜ 0.05).Vpv accelerated significantly in group A 2 weeks after operation than group B (t =12.81,P ＜ 0.05).Apparent improvement of liver function,spleen function and esophagogastric varices and reduction of spleen volume were observed in group A patients than group B patients (P ＜ 0.05).Reduction of esophagogastric varices in group A was better than in group B (x2 =44.73,P ＜ 0.05).By postoperative follow up,ABV patency of group A was higher than group B (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Patency status of liver outflow vein significantly influences postoperative portal vein pressure and closely correlats to ABV patency rate after ACS. Key words: Budd-Chiari syndrome; Blood vessel prosthesis ; Hypertension, portal; Esophageal and gastric varices