What is interventional radiology
Due to technological advancements the field of medicine becomes enriched with cutting edge devices which provide better solutions. This has led to the development of a whole new system of methods, which comprise the youngest field of medicine called Interventional Radiology. Interventional radiology has a wide range of procedures reaching to almost every organ and system in the body. Due to this broadness, we can divide it into different branches according to medical disciplines: interventional cardiology, interventional oncology, interventional endocrinology, biliary interventional radiology etc.
Interventional cardiology refers to the minimally invasive treatments for cardiology patients. Instead of open-heart surgeries, the interventional radiologist uses intravascular access to the body and performs under the guidance of images obtained from the devices of diagnostic radiology.
Along with intra-arterial procedures there are also procedures performed with percutaneous access. It takes only a little hole in the skin to make this access and reach the target place in the body. Interventional oncology uses both intravascular and percutaneous techniques. In the intravascular techniques there is a procedure called embolization. This is used to treat certain types of tumors, as well as uterine fibroids.
Percutaneous methods include thermal ablation techniques and well-known diagnostic biopsies.
Ablation is used to treat tumors and non- cancerous thyroid nodules. Image guided biopsies are used for final diagnosis, which help, then, to properly plan the treatment. Percutaneous techniques also include various types of drainage procedures. Before the development of interventional radiology doctors used to perform drainages with open surgeries which had increased risks for developing complications. This has changed now, as interventional radiology allows to perform minimally invasive drainage even for abscesses or other types of accumulations having the most challenging locations. Drainage as well as stenting procedures are mostly performed in conditions related to the biliary system.
In case of interventional endocrinology, the methods are aimed at treating mainly the thyroid gland nodules without an open surgery. Benign nodules and certain low-risk malignant nodules are now effectively treated with radiofrequency ablation.
All the aforementioned procedures are referred to as minimally invasive, for they cause minimal trauma to the body. Interventional radiology techniques may be used in combination with surgical treatment and as alternatives to surgeries, because they can ensure complete outcomes as effective as surgeries and in some cases interventional radiology may be the only available treatment option at all.
Percutaneous techniques of interventional radiology have been set to use in Armenia since 2013. With the efforts of Dr. Aramayis Galumyan, the ablation technique was introduced in Armenia in 2016. Until now the ablation is effectively practiced both for oncological and endocrine patients.
Founded by Dr. Aramayis Galumyan, the specialized center for interventional radiology provides large scope of IR treatments. To view all services click here.