Interventional treatment of Buga’s syndrome

  Bougainvillea syndrome is a series of clinical syndromes resulting from inferior vena cava and hepatic vein obstruction caused by congenital or acquired stenosis or obstruction of the hepatic veins or/and inferior vena cava. Patients may not have a clear history of hepatitis or cirrhosis, but present with upper gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatosplenomegaly, ascites, varices in the abdominal wall, varicose veins in the lower extremities, hyperpigmentation, and even complications such as infertility, sterility, menstrual irregularities, and hypogonadism. In the past, surgical procedures were mostly used for treatment, but they are more traumatic, with slow recovery, high recurrence rate, and complicated and risky operations.  Interventional treatment opens and dilates the narrowed or obstructed hepatic or inferior vena cava through a minimally invasive method to achieve blood flow recanalization. According to the site of obstruction, we can classify Bu-ga syndrome into three types, namely, inferior vena cava obstruction type (septal or segmental), hepatic vein obstruction type and mixed type. Different interventional procedures are chosen for each type.  For patients with inferior vena cava obstruction, balloon dilation is used to recanalize the inferior vena cava. If the obstruction is caused by segmental stenosis of the inferior vena cava, stenting can be used to recanalize the inferior vena cava if balloon dilation alone is ineffective or if restenosis occurs quickly.  In patients with hepatic vein obstruction, the hepatic vein can be balloon dilated and stented. If the hepatic vein cannot be recanalized and the collateral hepatic vein is stenosed or obstructed, but there is a large intrahepatic collateral circulation that communicates with the collateral hepatic vein, the collateral hepatic vein can be used as a target vein and the dilated collateral hepatic vein can be punctured under ultrasound guidance to open the collateral hepatic vein for angioplasty.  In patients with mixed type, no or poorly compensated parhepatic vein, stenting of inferior vena cava and hepatic vein is feasible. In mixed patients with well compensated collateral hepatic veins, the opening can also be performed by balloon dilation or stenting of the inferior vena cava alone.  Currently, interventional therapy has become the treatment of choice for Bu-ga syndrome because of its rapidity, minimal trauma, high safety, precise efficacy and economic, repeatable operation. Our department is at the advanced level in China in the interventional treatment of Bu-ga syndrome.