Portosystemic Shunt Syndrome and Endovascular Management of Hepatic Encephalopathy

The term "portosystemic shunt syndrome" was coined by Kumamoto et al referring to reduction of the hepatic reserve (reflected by progression of the Child-Pugh score) over 5 years compared with portal hypertensive cirrhotics without gastrorenal shunts or with prior history of obliterated gastrorenal shunts. Saad et al elaborated on this term further by describing a complete syndrome with clinical findings (including worsening liver failure and hepatic encephalopathy [HE]) and imaging findings (including hepatic atrophy, portal vein thrombosis, and paucity of intrahepatic portal vein radicles). This article discusses the syndrome in detail. In addition, the article describes the types of HE and the endovascular management of shunt-related HE.