Open AccessCovered stents for TIPS: are all problems solved?
Author(s) -
Christophe Bureau
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of gastroenterology and hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.881
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1473-5687
pISSN - 0954-691X
DOI - 10.1097/00042737-200606000-00001
Subject(s) - medicine , transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt , portal hypertension , hepatic encephalopathy , shunt (medical) , covered stent , surgery , stent , encephalopathy , radiology , cirrhosis
Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) has been used to treat complications of portal hypertension for more than 15 years. The two main drawbacks of TIPS are shunt dysfunction and encephalopathy. Accumulating data and the recent report published by Tripathi et al. show that the use of covered stents improves TIPS patency, by preventing pseudo-intimal hyperplasia, and clinical outcome of patients. Hence, controlled studies are needed to re-assess the role of TIPS using covered stents in the management of portal hypertension.