Outcome of paediatric portopulmonary hypertension in the modern management era: A case report of 6 patients.

Portopulmonary hypertension is a rare but serious complication of portal hypertension or portosystemic shunting. Portopulmonary hypertension is an indication for liver transplantation or shunt closure. However, liver transplantation is contraindicated in patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension. Reported mortality rates are high in children with portopulmonary hypertension and there are scarce recommendations on its management. Our aim was to report on our real-world experience of managing portopulmonary hypertension in a specialised centre. We describe a series of 6 children with portopulmonary hypertension. Their median age at diagnosis was 13 years (range 10-15). The underlying liver conditions were cirrhosis of unknown origin (1), congenital portocaval shunts (3), biliary atresia (1), and portal vein cavernoma with surgical mesenterico-caval shunt (1). Median mean pulmonary arterial pressure was 47 mmHg (range 32-70), and median pulmonary vascular resistance was 6.6 Wood units (range 4.3-15.4). All patients except one were treated with a combination of pulmonary arterial hypertension-specific therapy (phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors and/or endothelin receptor antagonists and/or prostacyclin analogues). Three patients then benefited from shunt closure and the others underwent liver transplantation. Five patients showed improvement or stabilisation of pulmonary arterial hypertension with no deaths after a mean follow-up of 39 months. Based on our limited experience, early and aggressive treatment with a combination of pulmonary arterial hypertension-specific therapy significantly improves patients' haemodynamic profile and enables the performance of liver transplantation and shunt closure with satisfactory outcomes.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interest Frédéric Lador reports grants, personal fees and non-financial support from Actelion, personal fees from MSD, grants and personal fees from Bayer, outside the submitted work. Maurice Beghetti has received grants from Actelion and Bayer, contracted as consultant and participate to steering committee for Actelion, Bayer, GSK, Eli Lilly and Acceleron, outside the submitted work. Please refer to the accompanying ICMJE disclosure forms for further details.
(Copyright © 2020 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)