UCLA Doctor Performs First Minimally Invasive Child Shunt

A 6-year-old California boy is doing well today after becoming the first child to receive a lifesaving blood vessel shunt through a needle-sized opening instead of major abdominal surgery.

Dr. Edward Wolfgang Lee at UCLA Health performed the breakthrough procedure in December 2025 on a boy who had experienced roughly 25 life-threatening bleeding episodes over three years. The child had previously received a liver transplant at 15 months old, but complications left him with dangerous blood clots and pressure buildup that caused veins to rupture repeatedly.

"He almost died," Dr. Lee said about an October incident when the boy coughed up blood clots and had to be intubated. The standard minimally invasive procedure wasn't possible because the boy's portal vein had completely disappeared from chronic clotting.

The only other option was cutting open his abdomen for a four-hour surgery requiring weeks of hospital recovery. That approach carried a 20% failure rate and extreme bleeding risks due to scarring from previous surgeries. As a last resort, the boy could have been placed on the transplant waiting list again, potentially for years.

Dr. Lee had performed this percutaneous spleno-renal shunt procedure on two critically ill adults before, but never a child. By studying years of the boy's imaging scans, he discovered the splenic and renal veins sat close together with no critical structures blocking the path.

The December procedure took two hours under general anesthesia. Using ultrasound and fluoroscopy guidance, Dr. Lee threaded catheters through a tiny skin puncture to create a new connection between the veins, relieving the dangerous pressure.

Surgeon Douglas Farmer, who performed the boy's original liver transplant, explained that open surgery would have been much more difficult and risky than what Dr. Lee accomplished radiographically. The percutaneous approach avoided hours of invasive surgery and weeks of painful recovery.

The Ripple Effect

Dr. Lee believes this procedure should be taught globally because countless children would benefit. Young patients with biliary atresia commonly have smaller portal veins and face higher risks of vascular complications after liver transplants. Many develop the same life-threatening bleeding varices this boy experienced.

The minimally invasive approach transforms a high-risk surgery into a two-hour outpatient procedure. Children can recover in days instead of weeks, with less pain, smaller scars, and better outcomes. For families watching their children suffer repeated bleeding episodes with no good options, this technique offers genuine hope.

Dr. Lee said the long-term outcome looks very promising. The boy continues doing well months after the procedure, free from the bleeding episodes that sent him to the hospital dozens of times and nearly cost him his life.

A needle-sized opening just gave countless children a fighting chance.