A procedure was carried out to lower the portal pressure.
To reduce the pressure in the portal vein in this patient, several surgical procedures were considered. These included sewing the side of the portal vein onto the inferior vena cava (portacaval shunt) and sewing the splenic vein onto the renal vein (a splenorenal shunt). These procedures, however, require a large abdominal incision and are extremely complex. As an alternative, it was decided to create a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt.