What is interventional radiology?

It is a medical specialty of very rapid growth, which offers a number of important and sometimes spectacular procedures (or care), of great value for the diagnosis and treatment of the patient. The procedures are performed by an interventional radiologist who has the skills to:

1. Close a bleeding vessel or a blood vessel that is feeding a tumor or vascular malformation.
2. Open a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel due to an arteriosclerotic plaque, placing a stent.
3. Reach a thrombus or blood clot, that is blocking an artery or vein, and place inside a medicine or fibrinolytic substance to destroy the clot and re-establish adequate circulation.
4. Place a filter in the inferior vena cava to catch blood clots in their path to the lungs.
5. Arrive precisely inside a tumor to burn it with a radiofrequency ablation procedure.
6. Go straight to an internal abscess, in order to put a small tube to drain it.
7. Build bridges for internal Bypas or restore blood flow, bile or urine.
8. Strengthen a vertebra when it is weakened and fractured.
9. Occlude a cerebral aneurysm or any abdominal vessel, and so on.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY?

1. Interventional Radiology is performed through a puncture with a needle (not cut), usually accessible to a blood vessel and sometimes a bile duct, urinary tract, gastrointestinal tract and under certain circumstances by a shortcut inside a body.
2. Lower risk due to the absence of big cuts in the body.
3. Less pain, because we don't need general anesthesia, but only conscious sedation.
4. Recovery time and return to work or your daily work much shorter.
5. Many of them are cheaper.

WHO ARE THE INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGISTS?

They are physicians that, after becoming specialists in general radiology, make a special training in the range of minimally invasive procedures. After that they belong to a new specialty called "Interventional Radiology." Interventional radiologists use their experience as radiologists to be familiar with the reading of X-Ray films, ultrasound and other medical images, and are trained to guide through the skin (percutaneous) small instruments such as catheters (small tubes) sailing inside the blood vessels or other pathways to treat certain medical conditions. These procedures are less invasive than regular surgery and often cheaper. The skills of the radiologist to see inside the body, in real time, have made him able to achieve an accuracy many times more precise and with a greater scope than an open surgery. Currently there are over 12,000 interventional radiologists around the world and the specialty continues to grow very fast. It has gained great acceptance of various medical specialties and gives a pleasant feeling of effective collaboration in the recovery of the patient.