To evaluate the long term patency of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) and to compare the patency rate of covered and uncovered stents in TIPS.

The study population included 78 patients with portal hypertension that underwent TIPS between January 1999 and July 2007 at our institution using uncovered stents in 53 patients and covered stents in 25 patients. The primary and secondary patency rates of TIPS were estimated to compare the uncovered and covered stent groups.

The primary and secondary patency rates of the TIPS patients were found to be 83.9% and 93.9% at the 6 month follow-up and 73.5% and 88.5% at the12 month follow-up for uncovered and covered stents, respectively. A breakdown patency rates for the 12 month follow-up revealed that the primary patency rates were 76.6% and 66.3% for uncovered and covered stents, respectively; whereas, the secondary patency rates were 94.3% and 73.8% for the uncovered and covered stents, respectively. A comparative analysis did not provide evidence to suggest that a difference exists between the patency rates of the uncovered and covered stent groups (p >0.05).

No significant difference was found between the patency rates of the uncovered and covered stent groups. A follow-up to this study would be a more thorough randomized evaluation of the different types of covered stents to compare long-term patency rates.