Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 6, 2023; 11(4): 945-951
Published online Feb 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i4.945
Treatment of portosystemic shunt-borne hepatic encephalopathy in a 97-year-old woman using balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration: A case report
Akihiro Nishi, Tsuneaki Kenzaka, Misa Sogi, Shuichiro Nakaminato, Takahiro Suzuki
Akihiro Nishi, Misa Sogi, General Medicine, Awa Regional Medical Center, Tateyama 2940014, Chiba, Japan
Tsuneaki Kenzaka, Division of Community Medicine and Career Development, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe 6500017, Hyogo, Japan
Shuichiro Nakaminato, Takahiro Suzuki, Department of Radiology, Kameda Medical Center, Kamogawa 2968602, Chiba, Japan
Author contributions: Nishi A managed the case and wrote and revised the manuscript; Kenzaka T, Sogi M, Nakaminato S, and Suzuki T assisted with the preparation and revision of the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patients for the publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Akihiro Nishi, MD, Doctor, General Medicine, Awa Regional Medical Center, 1155 Yamamoto, Tateyama 2940014, Chiba, Japan. akihiro.nishi24@gmail.com
Received: October 17, 2022
Peer-review started: October 17, 2022
First decision: December 26, 2022
Revised: December 30, 2022
Accepted: January 12, 2023
Article in press: January 12, 2023
Published online: February 6, 2023
Processing time: 111 Days and 18.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Hyperammonemia and hepatic encephalopathy are common with portosystemic shunts. In this case, hepatic encephalopathy caused by shunting of the left common iliac and inferior mesenteric veins was successfully treated with balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (B-RTO). A 97-year-old woman was diagnosed with hepatic encephalopathy secondary to a portosystemic shunt. The patient did not improve with conservative treatment: Lactulose, rifaximin, and a low-protein diet. B-RTO was performed, resulting in shunt closure and improvement in hyperammonemia and disturbance of consciousness. The patient was discharged without further consciousness disturbance.Portosystemic shunt-borne hepatic encephalopathy must be considered in the differential diagnosis for consciousness disturbance, including abnormal behavior and speech.