Transvenous coil embolization for treatment of patent ductus venosus in a dog.

A congenital intrahepatic portosystemic shunt was successfully closed in a 3-month-old Golden Retriever by use of a transvenous coil embolization procedure. The pup's patent ductus venosus was occluded by placing 8 Dacron fiber-covered, stainless steel, spring embolization coils into the shunt vessel through a catheter placed through the jugular vein. Four separate embolization procedures were performed to gradually close the portosystemic shunt and to allow intrahepatic portal perfusion to reform. Transvenous embolization may prove to be a better therapeutic alternative than surgery for correction of intrahepatic shunts because of its decreased invasiveness, lower mortality, and ability to gradually narrow the shunt lumen.