The original research “Pre-existing Hepatic Encephalopathy: Really a Contraindication to Elective TIPS?” by Torkian and colleagues [
1] addresses an important and somewhat controversial question regarding the effect of pre-existing hepatic encephalopathy (HE) on eligibility of the patients undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) creation for the complications of portal hypertension. This topic is of critical importance to the interventional radiology and hepatology community as this scenario is encountered frequently in clinical practice and traditionally hepatic encephalopathy has been considered as a relative contraindication for TIPS creation. …