What constitutes liver failure after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation? A proposed definition and grading system.

UNLABELLED

Background and rationale for the study. There is currently no definition of post-transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) liver failure (PTLF), which constitutes a barrier to standardization of TIPS results reporting and limits the ability to compare liver failure incidence across clinical studies. Thisdescriptive study proposes and preliminarily tests the performance of a PTLF definition and grading system.

RESULTS

PTLF was defined by ≥ 3-fold bilirubin and/or ≥ 2-fold INR elevation associated with clinical outcomes of prolonged hospitalization/increase in care level (grade 1), TIPS reduction or liver transplantation (grade 2), or death (grade 3) within 30-days of TIPS. PTLF incidence was 20% (grades 1, 2, 3: 10%, 3%, 8%) among 270 TIPS cases, and the scheme identified patients at increased risk for morbidity and mortality with a statistically significant difference in clinical outcomes between PTLF and non-PTLF groups (P<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, the PTLF definition and classification scheme put forth distributes patients into unique risk groups. PTLF grading may thus be useful for standardization of TIPS results reporting.