Portal and Mesenteric Venous Calcification in Patients with Advanced Cirrhosis: Two Case Reports and Literature

Abstract The incidence of portal and mesenteric venous calcifications in patients with cirrhosis has rarely been reported. It is also very difficult to determine the vascular lesions in preoperative imaging examination. The liver cirrhosis patients associated with portal venous calcification have high postoperative complications and mortality, but poor prognosis. We present the case of two patients (45-year-old male, case 1; 50-year-old male, case 2). Both patients were admitted to the hospital with liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension associated symptoms. The cases and review of published reports suggest that, calcification in the portal vein system is extremely rare, and always occurs in patients with long-standing liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension gastroesophageal varices and splenomegaly. The presence of portal vein calcification on CT may be a sign of portal vein thrombosis, which may result in a difficult transplantation, and poor prognosis.