Percutaneous treatment of biliary cast syndrome after orthotopic liver transplantation: comparison of mechanical versus hydraulic rheolytic cast extraction.

PURPOSE: Biliary cast syndrome (BCS) is the presence of casts within the intrahepatic or extrahepatic biliary system after orthotopic liver transplantation. Our work compares two percutaneous methods for BCS treatment: the mechanical cast-extraction technique (MCE) versus the hydraulic cast-extraction (HCE) technique using a rheolytic system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 24 patients were included in the study. Six patients were referred for HCE, and 18 patients were treated with MCE. A statistically significant larger number of sessions was required in the MCE group (21.0, range 11 to 72 sessions) (p = 0.033). RESULTS: Median therapy duration was shorter in the HCE group at 2.4 months (range 2 to 5) compared with 6.7 months (range 3 to 39) in the MCE group (p < 0.001). Both patient acceptance was better and costs for total therapy were 40% less in the HCE group. No significant differences where found concerning clinical and biochemical improvement or graft and patient survival. CONCLUSION: The use of the hydraulic rheolytic system decreased total therapy time, thereby decreasing the induced inflammation time of the biliary tree. A significant benefit of HCE has been observed in our patients when we compare our results with those of MCE.

Interventional radiologic procedures in the treatment of complications after liver transplantation.

The aim of this study is to report our interventional radiologic procedures (IRP) in liver transplant (LTX) patients. These include procedures for biliary, arterial, venous, and portal complications, as well as the treatment of infected and non-infected fluid collections. This retrospective study covered 583 patients (mean age: 44 +/- 14 yr) in whom a total of 685 LTX were performed from August 1987 to April 2005. Overall, 182 LTX patients underwent a total of 428 IRP, including digital subtraction angiography (n = 152/35.51%), percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) (n = 4/0.93%) and PTA + stent (n = 7/1.63%) of arterial anastomosis, PTA + stent of the celiac trunk (n = 2/0.46%), transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) (n = 2/0.46%), arterial lysis (n = 4/0.93%), venous lysis (n = 2/0.46%), inferior vena cava stenting (n = 2/0.46%), percutaneous biliary drainage (n = 34/7.94%), percutaneous transluminal dilatation (PTD) of the choledocho-enteric anastomosis (n = 16/3.73%), biliary stent (n = 5/1.16%), intrahepatic biliary flushing treatment, stone and cast biliary extraction (n = 27/6.30%), other interventions (e.g., embolization in other regions, transjugular liver biopsies, lymphangiographies) (n = 9/2.10%), and ultrasound- and computer tomography-guided biopsies and percutaneous drainage (n = 153/35.74%). The overall success rate was 85.7%. Technical improvements in LTX and interventional radiology permit vascular and biliary complications to be treated successfully by interventional radiology.

Successful arterial thrombolysis and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for early hepatic artery thrombosis after split liver transplantation in a four-month-old baby.

Early HAT is the most frequent and severe vascular complication following liver transplantation. It is one of the major causes of graft failure and mortality. Endovascular thrombolytic treatment in patients with thrombotic complications after liver transplantation is an attractive alternative to open surgery as lower morbidity and mortality rates are reported for it. PTA following transcatheter thrombolysis has been successfully used to treat HAT in adults. To the best of our knowledge, there have not been any reports of a successful transcatheter thrombolysis using interventional radiological techniques in a patient only four months old. The present report describes the successful endovascular emergency treatment of a HAT three days after DD split liver transplantation.

Acute pancreatitis after embolization of liver tumors: frequency and associated risk factors.

INTRODUCTION: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a rare complication after liver embolization (LE) of primary and secondary liver tumors (approximately 1.7%), but it has a significant morbidity and mortality potential if associated with other complications. It usually develops early within 24 h after the LE procedure. STUDY PURPOSE: To calculate the frequency of AP after LE in our institution and to analyze the factors involved in this procedure (anatomical features, embolization materials, cytostatic drugs, technical factors). MATERIALS AND METHODS: 118 LE (bland embolization and transarterial chemoembolization) were performed in our institution. The study group included 59 patients who met the following inclusion criteria: one or more LE events, with complete pre- and post-interventional laboratory studies including: serum Ca(2+), creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, glucose, lactate dehydrogenase, aminotransferases, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, lipase, C-reactive protein, hematocrit and leukocytes. The diagnosis of AP was established according to the criteria of the Atlanta system of classification. For the statistical analysis the association between two response variables (e.g. AP after embolization and risk factor during the embolization, AP after embolization and volume of embolic material) was evaluated using Pearson's chi(2) test and Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: The calculated frequency of AP after LE in our series was 15.2%. Amylase and lipase were elevated up to 8.7 and 20.1 times, respectively, 24 h after LE. We observed a statistically significantly lower incidence of AP in those patients who received 2 ml or less of embospheres compared with those with an embolization volume of >2 ml (Pearson's chi(2) = 4.5000, Pr = 0.034, Fisher's exact test = 0.040). Although carboplatin was administered to 7 of 9 of the patients who developed AP after the embolization procedure, there was no statistical significance (Fisher's exact test = 0.197) for carboplatin as an AP risk factor when compared with all the patients who received this drug (n = 107). CONCLUSION: Although AP after LE seems to have a multifactorial etiology, both the toxicity of the antineoplastic drugs (carboplatin-related toxicity) as well as direct ischemic mechanisms (non-target embolization, reflux mechanisms) may be the most important causes of the inflammatory pancreatic reaction after LE. We suggest that systematic measurement of serum pancreatic enzymes should be performed in cases of abdominal pain following selective LE and transarterial chemoembolization in order to confirm acute pancreatitis after embolization, which can clinically mimic a postembolization syndrome.

False lumen embolization for type B dissection complicated by hemoptysis.

In this report, we describe successful treatment of a patient with hemoptysis by false lumen embolization of a type B aortic dissection.

Preoperative evaluation of living renal donors: value of contrast-enhanced 3D magnetic resonance angiography and comparison of three rendering algorithms.

The aim of this study was to assess the value of contrast-enhanced three-dimensional MR angiography (CE 3D MRA) in the preoperative assessment of potential living renal donors, and to compare the accuracy for the depiction of the vascular anatomy using three different rendering algorithms. Twenty-three potential living renal donors were examined with CE 3D MRA (TE/TR=1.3 ms/3.7 ms, field of view 260-320x350 mm, 384-448x512 matrix, slab thickness 9.4 cm, 72 partitions, section thickness 1.3 mm, scan time 24 s, 0.1 mmol/kg body weight gadobenate dimeglumine). Magnetic resonance angiography data sets were processed with maximum intensity projection (MIP), volume rendering (VR), and shaded-surface display (SSD) algorithms. The image analysis was performed independently by three MR-experienced radiologists recording the number of renal arteries, the presence of early branching or vascular pathology. The combination of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and intraoperative findings served as the gold standard for the image analysis. In total, 52 renal arteries were correspondingly observed in 23 patients at DSA and surgery. Other findings were 3 cases of early branching of the renal arteries, 4 cases of arterial stenosis and 1 case of bilateral fibromuscular dysplasia. With MRA source data all 52 renal arteries were correctly identified by all readers, compared with 51 (98.1%), 51-52 (98.1-100%) and 49-50 renal arteries (94.2-96.2%) with the MIP, VR and SSD projections, respectively. Similarly, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy was highest with the MRA source data followed by MIP, VR and SSD. Time requirements were lowest for the MIP reconstructions and highest for the VR reconstructions. Contrast-enhanced 3D MRA is a reliable, non-invasive tool for the preoperative evaluation of potential living renal donors. Maximum intensity projection is favourable for the processing of 3D MRA data, as it has minimal time and computational requirements, while having similar or superior accuracy for the depiction of vessel anomalies or pathology compared with VR and SSD, respectively.