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TIPS
Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is a procedure to create new connections between two blood vessels in your liver. You may need this procedure if you have very bad liver problems.
This is not a surgical procedure. It is done by a radiologist using x-ray. A radiologist is a doctor who uses imaging techniques to diagnose and treat diseases.
You will be asked to lie on your back. You will be connected to monitors that will check your heart rate and blood pressure.
You will probably receive local anesthesia and medicine to relax you. This will make you pain-free and sleepy. Or, you may have general anesthesia (asleep and pain-free).
Your radiologist will insert a catheter (a flexible tube) through your skin into a vein in your neck.
This new pathway will allow blood to flow better. It will ease pressure on the veins of your stomach, esophagus, intestines, and liver.
Normally, blood coming from your esophagus, stomach, and intestines first flows through the liver. When your liver has a lot of damage and there are blockages, blood cannot flow through it very easily. This is called portal hypertension (increased pressure and backup at the portal vein).
When this problem happens, you may have:
This procedure allows your blood to flow better in your liver, stomach, esophagus, and intestines, and then back to your heart.
Rikkers LF. Surgical complications of cirrhosis and portal hypertension. In: Townsend CM, Beauchamp RD, Evers BM, Mattox KL, eds. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2008:chap 53.
Shah VH, Kamath PS. Portal hypertension and gastrointestinal bleeding. In: Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ, eds. Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier;2010: chap 90.
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