Transhepatic puncture of portal and hepatic veins for TIPS using a single-needle pass under sonographic guidance

OBJECTIVE: Creating transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) requires accessing a portal vein branch from a metal cannula wedged in a hepatic vein. This initial step in shunt creation often requires multiple blind intrahepatic punctures and occasionally fails. We describe a method using sonographic guidance to serially puncture the portal vein and hepatic vein with a single transhepatic needle pass, after which the TIPS procedure is completed in the standard transjugular fashion. CONCLUSION: Sonographically guided transhepatic dual puncture of the portal and hepatic veins facilitates portosystemic shunt creation in a single needle pass and allows more controlled selection of the portal vein entry and hepatic vein landing sites in selected patients.