Impact of General Anesthesia on the Right Atrial Pressure During Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt Creation: A Propensity Score Match Analysis

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of general anesthesia on right atrial (RA) pressure measurements during transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement using propensity score match analysis. Materials: A single-institution database was used to identify 664 patients who underwent TIPS creation under either conscious sedation (CS) or general anesthesia (GA) between 2009 and 2018. A propensity-matched cohort was created using logistic regression of sedation method on demographics, liver disease status, and indications. Paired analyses were performed using mixed models for RA pressure and Cox proportional hazards model with robust standard errors for mortality. Results: Of the 664 patients, 270 patients were matched based on similar characteristics (135 for GA and 135 for CS). Indications for TIPS creation included intractable ascites (n = 170, 63%), hepatic hydrothorax (n = 30, 11%), variceal bleeding (n = 43, 16%), and other (n = 27, 10%). Pre-TIPS RA pressure was greater in the matched GA group as compared to CS group by a mean of 4.2 mmHg (p < 0.0001). Similarly, post-TIPS RA pressure was greater in the matched GA group as compared to CS group by a mean of 3.3 mmHg (p < 0.0001). Pre- and post-procedure RA pressure was found to have no association with post-procedure mortality (0.8891, HR 1.077; p 0.917, HR 0.997; respectively). Conclusions: Utilization of GA during TIPS creation raises the intra-procedural RA pressure compared to CS. However, this elevated intra-procedural RA pressure does not appear to be predictive of mortality post-TIPS creation.