Portal Reform: Old, But New Concept on Portal Circulation
Naoya Murashima · Internal Medicine · 2001
systemic shuntPortal-systemic shunt achieved by surgical procedure was the origin of the treatment for portal hypertension suggested by Eck (1).Connection of the portal trunk with inferior vena cava achieves a dramatic decrease in portal pressure and stops bleeding from esophageal varices immediately.In a few countries, portocaval shunting is one of the choices of the treatment for bleeding esophageal varices even now.In Japan, in about 1950, cardiovascular surgeons successfully performed many portocaval shunt-operations on patients with liver cirrhosis (2).But, following the operation, hepatic encephalopathy occurred repeatedly, therefore, mid-term prognosis was poor due to en-