HEPATORENAL SYNDROME - REVERSAL BY PERITONEOVENOUS SHUNT

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 82  (3) , 337-341
Abstract
Two patients with hepatorenal syndrome were treated by insertion of a peritoneovenous shunt. The renal deficit was corrected rapidly in both cases. A 62 yr old woman with a slow onset syndrome with urine output of 100-150 ml/day and urinary Na excretion of 1 meq/day responded with large volume urinary output and Na excretion. She is alive with minimal ascites 18 mo. after shunt. A 53 yr old man with severe nutritional cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis and eventual massive necrosis was treated for bleeding esophageal varices by portacaval shunt. Postoperative massive ascites progressed to acute hepatorenal syndrome. Insertion of a peritoneovenous shunt reversed the renal deficit. He eventually exsanguinated due to a hemorrhagic diathesis caused by massive hepatic necrosis.