Pulmonary Arterial Coil Embolization for the Management of Persistent Type I Hepatopulmonary Syndrome after Liver Transplantation

Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a common complication of chronic liver disease. The definitive therapy is liver transplantation. Medical management, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation, and pulmonary arterial coil embolization have been described as temporizing measures until liver transplantation is performed. In earlier studies, the degree of right-to-left shunting in HPS has been shown to be an indicator of posttransplantation morbidity and mortality. The present article describes a case of type I HPS managed by liver transplantation and augmented by posttransplantation pulmonary arterial coil embolization to reduce the patient's posttransplantation morbidity.