Balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration as a procedure to improve liver function in patients with decompensated cirrhosis.

Aim: Portosystemic shunts aggravate liver function by decreasing portal blood flow. The usefulness of balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (B-RTO), a standardized therapeutic procedure for gastric fundal varices (GFV), for the improvement of liver function was evaluated in cirrhotic patients with or without varices.

Methods: The subjects were 161 patients with portosystemic shunts. A balloon catheter was inserted into the shunts, followed by the injection of 5% ethanolamine oleate through the catheter under balloon inflation. The balloon was kept inflated for 6 to 48 h.

Results: B-RTO was performed as a therapy for GFV in 112 patients and for the improvement of liver function in 49 patients. The targets were splenorenal shunts in 104 patients (93.6%) in the former group and 33 patients (67.3%) in the latter group, and the procedures were successfully completed in 109 (97.3%) and 39 (79.6%) patients, respectively. In both groups, the serum albumin levels were increased and the serum ammonia levels were decreased at more than 1 month after the procedures, compared with the baseline levels, whereas significant improvements in the Child-Pugh scores and prothrombin times were only seen in the latter group. In these patients, the portal blood flows evaluated using Doppler ultrasound were increased at 1 week after the procedures, compared with the baseline levels.

Conclusions: B-RTO is a useful therapeutic procedure for improving liver function even in patients without GFV by increasing the portal venous flow with successfully targeted, uncommon portosystemic shunts.