Interventional radiology offers an alternative to the surgical treatment of many conditions. It results in significant reductions in the risk, pain, and recovery time compared to traditional surgical treatments. Because it is less invasive, it is generally safer, less costly, and faster than surgery, and results in a significantly reduced hospital stay. This is important for the stronger patient and can be a matter of life and death to a very weak patient who could not survive the trauma of a surgical procedure.

Interventional radiology involves the treatment of the patient, rather than just the diagnosis of the disease. Interventional radiologists are a small group of highly trained subspecialists (numbering around 3600 in the US) highly skilled in both diagnostic imaging and technical catheter related procedures. Interventional radiologists use X-rays and other imaging tools to "see" inside the body while they guide narrow tubes (catheters) and other very small instruments through blood vessels and other pathways of the body to the site of a problem, treating a variety of medical disorders, without surgery.

Please visit the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology for more information regarding this subspecialty:

One of the most dramatic applications of the interventionalist's art is in the treatment of patients suffering from blockages in arteries. If blood vessels become totally blocked they can cause loss of function of the tissue or even death of the organ or limb.

To increase blood flow, the interventionalist can insert a catheter into a blood vessel and thread it to the point of the narrowing or blockage, then inflate a tiny balloon on the end of the catheter (angioplasty). Using angioplasty, the radiologist can open the blockage and return normal blood flow to the tissue. Other techniques are available to open blocked vessels, including the use of stents to hold arteries open from the inside. These stents stay in the vessel permanently. The effect of these treatments is dramatic and immediate, and the need for subsequent surgery is often eliminated.

These techniques are frequently used to open narrowed or blocked leg arteries, which cause pain during exercise (claudication), and to treat narrowed arteries to the kidneys, which can cause renal failure or high blood pressure.

Vascular and Interventional Radiology procedures include: