Introduction : Portal vein occlusion is the worrisome late complication following pancreaticoduodenectomy that caused variceal bleeding, which must be diagnosed correctly and treated promplty. This study aimed to describe characteristics and evaluate patency of portal vein stent for post pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Methods : Eleven consecutive patients (age range 45 to 78; nine men and two women) who underwent portal vein stenting between January 2000 and December 2016, all of them suffer portal vein occlusion after pancreaticoduodenectomy, were retrospectively reviewed. Primary stent patency was plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results : All patients underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy. Portal vein occlusion was caused by benign postoperative change (n= 8) and local tumor recurrence (n=3). Symptoms were gastrointestinal bleeding (n=10) and uncontrolled ascites (n=1). Symptoms occurred at 38 moths (2 to 121 months), on average, postoperatively. Technical success, treatment efficacy and clinical success rates were 90.9, 100 and 90.9%, respectively. The primary patency rate of portal stent was 91.9% during the mean follow-up period of 12months. There was no procedure related complication or mortality occurred.

Conclusions : Portal vein stenting is a feasible and safe treatment for symptomatic portal vein occlusion after pancreaticoduodenectomy.