What is Interventional Radiology and Embolisation?
Interventional Radiology (Minimally Invasive Image Guided Surgery) is a medical speciality that uses many of the imaging and scanning facilities available to offer a range of minimally invasive procedures which increasingly can offer an alternative to conventional open surgery. Most of the procedures are done under local anaesthetic (giving quicker recovery times than after general anaesthesia) and can often be done either as day case procedures or require only a short hospital stay with rapid return to normal activities including return to work. Since most procedures start with passing a needle through the skin to the target it is sometimes called pinhole surgery.
Advances in diagnostic imaging allowed the development of Interventional Radiology as a speciality from the mid 1970s. More recent advances in scanning and medical device technologies have seen a huge increase in the scope and ability of Interventional Radiology to treat a wide variety of conditions. There is hardly any area of hospital medicine where IR has not had some impact on patient treatment. These range from angioplasty and stenting of narrowed arteries to treating tumours by embolisation (blocking the blood supply). The speciality is at the cutting edge of application of new technologies to treat disease conditions that in the past may have required major surgical procedures with prolonged recovery times.
The essential skills of an Interventional Radiologist are in diagnostic image interpretation and the manipulation of fine catheter tubes and wires to navigate around the body under imaging control. Interventional Radiologists are doctors who are trained in Radiology and Interventional Therapy; no other medical specialty possesses this unique combination of skills.
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