Published online Aug 14, 2013. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i30.5000
Revised: May 30, 2013
Accepted: July 4, 2013
Published online: August 14, 2013
Processing time: 176 Days and 20.4 Hours
AIM: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of an expanded polytetrafluoro-ethylene-covered Fluency stent compared with that of a polyethylene terephthalate-covered Wallgraft stent for the management of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) dysfunction.
METHODS: A retrospective review of patients who underwent TIPS revision with stent-grafts between May 2007 and June 2011 was conducted. The patients were divided into two groups according to the stent-grafts implanted: the Fluency stent (Bard Incorporated, Karlsruhe, Germany) and the Wallgraft stent (Boston Scientific, Galway, Ireland). The primary patency rates were calculated and compared using the Kaplan-Meier method.
RESULTS: A total of 73 patients were evaluated in this study: 33 with Fluency stents and 40 with Wallgraft stents. The primary patency rates at 12 and 24 mo were 91% and 85%, respectively, in the Fluency stent group and 78% and 63%, respectively, in the Wallgraft stent group. The primary shunt patency rates after TIPS revision were significantly better with the Fluency stent than with the Wallgraft stent (P = 0.033).
CONCLUSION: TIPS revision with the Fluency stent has higher medium-term patency rates than that with the Wallgraft stent.
Core tip: There are few data on the clinical use of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent-grafts for the management of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) dysfunction in the literature. The present study was designed to retrospectively evaluate the clinical efficacy of Fluency stent compared with Wallgraft stent in the treatment of TIPS dysfunction. And the results demonstrated that TIPS revision with the Fluency stent has higher medium-term patency rates than that with the Wallgraft stent.