Intervention Radiology (I.R)


Intervational Radiology (I.R) is at the cutting edge of modern medicine and has brought significant improvements in patient care. IR procedures are more convenient for patients as they are done mostly outpatient basis. They are Minimally Invasive and nonsurgical procedures causing less pain, less disfigurement, no scaring and with shorter recovery time. These procedures involving least complications with high success rates. 

Interventional Radiology (IR) would mainly navigate the entrails of human body with ease and without hurting any of its strands, locate disease and feel it well within their power to fix it.

The advantages of Interventional Radiology treatments have reduced risks, shorter hospital stays, lower costs, greater comfort, quicker recovery and early return to work. The effectiveness of treatment is often better than with traditional common treatments/ surgery.

Interventional radiologists are doctors who are trained in radiology and interventional therapy. No other specialty possesses such unique blend of skills as IR. The range of conditions which can be treated by IR is enormous and continually expanding. The effectiveness of treatment is often better than with traditional treatments.

      According to Dr Arup,  Sr Consultant, Interventional Radiology, Vasocare, Rajgarh road, Guwahati, ‘Interventional Radiology (IR) is an exciting & unique speciality that is at the intersection between Radiology and Surgery. It has been called as the ‘Surgery of the new millennium’ because it replaces the cut with a needle.

He further added, ‘It is rewarding to treat patients with minimally invasive image guided procedures especially those who had lost all hope. We can now treat many conditions that once required open, invasive surgery.
     
IR experts are coming so handy in the treatments of liver cancer patients who are diagnosed early. From liver cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer,  gall bladder cancer, lung cancer to non cancerous conditions like averting Thyroid Nodule, Fibroids / Myoma of the uterus stroke, stopping internal bleeding, treating varicose veins, DVT - the list is long where Interventional Radiology gives far better result.

      IR is not only the first line of treatment of liver cancer; it is its final and curable treatment in selective cases. When nothing works, IR can come handy. Since it involves only a  needle and small tube known as Catheter, there are almost no side effects. It is the minimally invasive pin hole surgical procedures in the real sense of term.’
 
Narrowing of arteries leads to restricted blood flow. IR can treat this by using angioplasty balloons to stretch the vessel (balloon angioplasty, PTA) and stents to hold them open. Unless the blood supply is restored this can lead to amputation. Interventional radiologists can help by infusion of clot resolving and draining out clots directly into the artery via small catheters thus saving many limbs.
 
IRs treat expanded arteries (aneurysms) at risk of rupture and bleeding by relining the vessel with a tube called a stent graft.
 
Bleeding (haemorrhage) is the most common vascular emergency treated by IR. Haemorrhage can come from almost anywhere e.g. from the gut, secondary to major injury or following birth. Bleeding can often permanently be stopped by blocking the vessel (embolization), relining the vessel with a stent graft or by blowing up a balloon in the vessel to stop the bleeding until emergency surgery can be performed. Interventional radiology is also used to prevent bleeding during some sorts of surgery e.g. during caesarean section in patients with a high risk of bleeding from an abnormal placenta (post partum haemorrhage).IR can treat blood clots in the lung (pulmonary embolism), dilated veins (varicose veins), that most commonly occur in the legs, venous thrombosis and what not.
 
In non vascular intervention, it can treat the tumour / cancer (tumour ablation, embolization), can relieve the effects of the cancer on other systems, can drain collections of fluid or pus in the chest or abdomen, place feeding tubes, can treat collapsed spinal bones (vertebroplasty), can treat kidney diseses and what not. IR is also the best modality offering  acute and chronic excruciating  pain management including cancer pain.

It is the most  innovative speciality of the medicine.