Bhubaneswar: A team of doctors in the state has performed a complex advanced procedure to treat partial functional liver through the advanced technology of Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) for the first time in the state.
Doctors claim that while the procedure— which was very precise, advance and complex— does not need an open surgery. It relies on a small cut through which a catheter and other instruments are inserted to reach the target spot. It could be categorised as minimal invasive technology.
“TIPS is used to reduce portal hypertension and its complications. We place a small wire-mesh coil (stent) into the liver vein. It forms a channel that bypasses the liver. This channel reduces pressure in the portal vein and by reducing portal hypertension, the enlarged veins are less likely to rupture and bleed,” said Dr Sibasankar Dalai, Vascular and Interventional Radiologist, BR Life Kalinga Hospital. He is the one who performed the procedure in the hospital.
The doctor claimed that in the current case where this technology was used, they also removed three liters of fluid that accumulated in the abdomen due to the dysfunctional liver. The experts claim that the liver works to detoxify the blood. A severely affected liver interrupts this process and procedures like TIPS could be used to treat the patients if liver transplant cannot be done.
Dr Sangamitra Mishra, anestheologist who assisted Dr Dalai in this case, claim that administering anesthesia in this case was also a Herculean task as the liver was compromised due to cirrhosis. She explained that a precise and experienced team can handle such cases with success.
The patient who was operated upon was an alcoholic for the past 10-15 years. He suffered from stiffness of liver that resulted in stopping of blood flow into the liver. This developed back pressure into the spleen vein (a blood vessel that provides blood to the liver from spleen) and the digestive system resulting in the leak of fluid from the blood that further got accumulated in the abdomen.
