Interventional Radiology
The Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology is co-directed by Renan Uflacker. MD, MSc, Professor of Radiology, and J. Bayne Selby, Jr., MS, MD, Professor of Radiology. They are both full time dedicated interventionalists who are Board Certified in Diagnostic Radiology with Certificates of Added Qualification in Vascular and Interventional Radiology. |
What is Interventional Radiology? Interventional radiology can be defined as a specialty where trained radiologists use various imaging techniques and modalities to guide percutaneous minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The procedures are called percutaneous procedures because, as opposed to surgery, they are done through the skin using a needle stick or a small cut down technique. The procedures are usually simpler and safer, less traumatic, less painful, less invasive and in general as effective, and more cost-effective than comparable open surgical procedures. Interventional procedures can be divided into two broad categories, vascular and non-vascular. The vascular angiographic procedures predominantly involve the use of catheters and guidewire combination within the vascular system. Percutaneous vascular procedures include infusion of drugs, percutaneous occlusion of vessels (embolization), percutaneous ablation of organs (cancer), percutaneous dilatation of vessels (angioplasty), percutaneous placement of transcatheter devices (stents and stent/grafts), and foreign body retrieval. The soft tissue procedures, or the non-vascular procedures, include the use of needles, trocars, catheters and guide wires within the bile ducts, the urinary system, the tracheobronchial tree, and other systems and cavities. The abilities of these procedures include localization, percutaneous needle biopsy, percutaneous drainage, percutaneous dilatation and stent placement, and ostomy formation.
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