For Patients
Conditions and treatments
Interventional radiology (IR) delivers treatments with reduced risk, less pain and shorter recovery times than open surgery, reducing the length of hospital stays, minimizing potential complications and saving lives.
Ablation
Ablation therapy is a procedure doctors use to destroy abnormal tissue that can be present in many conditions.
Biopsy
A biopsy is a procedure to remove a piece of tissue or a sample of cells from your body so that it can be tested in a laboratory.
Drainage
Image-guided percutaneous drainage involves using a catheter (a thin tube) to drain an abscess or a collection of fluid or air under image guidance.
Embolization
Embolization may be used to treat fibroids, pelvic veins, enlarged prostate, varicoceles and other conditions. It usually refers to a procedure in which medical materials or devices are placed into a blood vessel to temporarily or permanently stop bleeding.
Interventional Oncology
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IVC filter
IVC filter placement is a preventative tool placed inside a huge vein in the abdomen called the inferior vena cava to trap any blood clots that may break free from the veins in the legs and potentially reach the heart or the lungs. An IVC filter is one of the many treatments used to prevent a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot that travels to the lungs) and should only be placed in patients that cannot receive blood thinners or in patients in whom blood thinning treatment has failed.
Men's Health
Interventional radiologists may treat an enlarged prostate, and alleviate its worrisome symptoms, by blocking blood flow to the prostate (causing it to shrink), using a technique called embolization. They also use the same technique to reduce the swelling and pain associated with enlarged veins in the scrotum called varicoceles.
Pain Management
Interventional radiologists can provide minimally invasive treatments to relieve pain, including epidural steroid injection, facet joint injections/denervation, percutaneous discectomy, interspinous spacer placement for spinal stenosis, spinal cord stimulation and targeted drug delivery.
Pediatric
Pediatric interventional radiologists (PIRs) are specially trained to deliver minimally invasive care to infants, children and teenagers. The treatments they deliver carry less risk, less pain and less recovery time than traditional surgery.
Peripheral Arterial
PAD happens when arteries in the legs narrow, reducing or cutting off blood flow, and is a leading cause of non-trauma related amputations when not diagnosed and treated early.
Sclerotherapy
Sclerotherapy is the direct injection through a tiny needle of a chemical irritant into a vein causing it to shrink and close. This technique is often used to treat smaller veins such as spider veins.
Stenting
Stenting is the placement of a woven tube covered by a metal mesh at the site of weakness to reinforce the arterial wall. Device placement is done with the help of a catheter which is inserted through the groin under real-time X-ray. Stent grafts are metallic stents covered by graft material and often used to treat an enlarged aorta in an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Thoracic/Abdominal
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Thrombolysis
Thrombolysis treats vascular blockages and improves blood flow by dissolving abnormal blood clots. A blood clot, or thrombus, can block off blood supply to certain parts of the body and cause serious damage. During catheter-directed thrombolysis, the physician uses X-ray imaging and a catheter to guide special medication or a medical device to the site of a blood clot to dissolve the blockage, to remove it and to prevent the vein or artery from becoming permanently blocked and restricting blood flow to a limb or organ.
Venous
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Women's Health
Interventional radiologists treat a variety of conditions for women including uterine fibroids, infertility, chronic pelvic pain and varicose veins
An IR can work with your doctor to treat a variety of medical issues. Learn more about the conditions IRs treat.
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