Renosplenic shunt for control of esophageal variceal hemorrhage.

The left renal vein was used to perform a renosplenic (38 patients) or an adrenosplenic (5 patients) shunt in forty-three patients with esophageal variceal hemorrhage. All patients were successfully decompressed without recurrence of variceal bleeding in the postoperative period. One shunt thrombosed six months postoperatively and one kidney was removed because of venous hypertension and spontaneous rupture two days postoperatively. Overall mortality was 16 per cent, including a 22 per cent mortality in the emergency group.