Short outcome comparison of elderly patients versus nonelderly patients treated with transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunt

A transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunt (TIPSS) has been widely used to treat portal hypertension and its complications. However, no established guidelines mentioned whether age was a risk factor for the treatment of TIPSS.The aim is to determine whether age is a risk factor for poor outcomes following TIPSS.The retrospective cohort study included 134 patients who received TIPSS treatment from 2003 to 2016. The adverse events after the TIPSS treatment were compared after propensity score matching to reduce the effect of selection bias. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to confirm the potential confounders for rebleeding (RB) and ascites after TIPSS therapy.After excluding 10 patients, 124 patients were analyzed. Among them, 37 patients were included in the elderly group. In the propensity score matched cohort (32 pairs), there was no significant difference between the elderly group and the nonelderly group in terms of the event after TIPSS therapy (All P > .05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that hypertension (OR 13.246, 95% CI: [1.29, 136.073]; P = .03) was an independent risk factor for RB. In addition, smoking (OR 4.48, 95% CI: [1.43, 14.033]; P = .01) and preascites (OR 6.7, 95% CI: [2.04, 22.005]; P = .002) were independent risk factors for ascites after TIPSS treatment.Age is not an independent risk factor for poor outcomes following the treatment of TIPSS. Smoking and preascites are independent risk factors for patients' ascites, and hypertension is an independent risk factor for patients' RB after TIPSS therapy.