Interventional radiology

Interventional radiology (IR) is a medical specialty that performs various minimally-invasive procedures using medical imaging guidance, such as x-ray fluoroscopy, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasound. IR performs both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures through very small incisions or body orifices. Diagnostic IR procedures are those intended to help make a diagnosis or guide further medical treatment, and include image-guided biopsy of a tumor or injection of an imaging contrast agent into a hollow structure, such as a blood vessel or a duct. By contrast, therapeutic IR procedures provide direct treatment—they include catheter-based medicine delivery, medical device placement (e.g., stents), and angioplasty of narrowed structures. The main benefits of interventional radiology techniques are that they can reach the deep structures of the body through a body orifice or tiny incision using small needles and wires. That decreases risks, pain, and recovery compared to open procedures. Real-time visualization also allows precision guidance to the abnormality, making the procedure or diagnosis more accurate. These benefits are weighed against the additional risks of lack of immediate access to internal structures (should bleeding or a perforation occur), and the risks of radiation exposure such as cataracts and cancer. Interventional radiology is a set of techniques that allows access to the internal structures of the body through body orifices or very small incisions and guidance with medical imaging. Regardless of the reason for the intervention, the procedure will likely use common elements such as a puncture needle (to pass through the skin), guidewires (to guide through structures such as blood vessels or the biliary or urinary systems), a sheath (which slides over the guidewire and holds the path open without injuring it), and catheters (that allow fluids to be pushed through them). Also common to all intervention radiology procedures are the medical imaging machines that allow the healthcare provider to see what is occurring within the body.