Patient Information Leaflets (click here)
Interventional Radiology (IR) is sometimes referred to as Image Guided Surgery as we use imaging technology (such as x-ray, CT or ultrasound) to look inside patients and perform minimally invasive procedures. It is commonly confused with key-hole surgery but in fact the holes we make are even smaller than key-hole surgery and is therefore sometimes called pin-hole surgery as we operate through a hole the size of a large needle. The vast majority of procedures can be performed under local anaesthetic or sedation with only a very few complex cases requiring a general anaesthetic.
Interventional Radiologists first train as radiologists to learn how to use and interpret the imaging technology but then undertake further specialist training in minimally invasive image guided surgery to then integrate the two roles.
Interventional Radiology has existed for many years with the first procedure performed in 1964 by Charles Dotter who dilated the main blood vessel in the leg with a series of dilators in a patient with gangrene. The procedure allowed more blood to get to the foot and it healed without the need for surgery. We now use inflatable balloons to do this procedure and there are many other procedures which have been developed over the years which can help avoid major open surgery.
Interventional Radiology procedures usually involve guiding a needle into the body using ultrasound or CT and accessing a particular organ (liver, kidney, stomach etc) or a vessel (artery or vein), then guiding a wire and catheter through the needle into that area. Using a real-time x-ray camera, the wire and catheter can then be guided through the body to perform whatever procedure is required.
Interventional Radiology can be divided into 4 main subgroups:
1. Vascular Intervention (Arterial) – procedures involving the arteries throughout the body such as angioplasty (balloon dilatation of narrowed blood vessels) or embolisation (blocking off blood vessels to tumours or when someone is bleeding internally).
2. Vascular Intervention (Venous) – procedures involving the veins such as inserting lines into veins, inserting filters to prevent clot travelling around the body (IVC filters) or using devices to suck clot out of blocked veins (thrombectomy).
3. Non-vascular Intervention – procedures not involving the blood vessels such as unblocking kidneys (nephrostomy) or the liver (PTC), injecting cement into collapsed bones (vertebroplasty) or inserting feeding tubes into the stomach (RIG).
4. Interventional Oncology – procedures performed for the diagnosis or treatment of cancer such as tumour ablation (killing tumour cells by inserting a needle into a tumour and heating it up) or injecting chemotherapy coated beads into tumours to kill them (TACE).
Back
Visit the UHCW CHarity Website
Please ensure you have a current blood test request form, if not please contact your hospital consultant or GP and they will post one to you. Unfortunately, your blood test will need to be rescheduled if you do not have a blood test request form when you come to a Blood Test clinic.
All blood tests are by appointment, please book an appointment using the Book Online button below.
If you have an appointment and cannot attend, please remember to cancel or reschedule your appointment so that someone else can use the time slot that you no longer need.
If you cannot book an appointment online, family and friends may be able to help – you can book appointments for more than one person from one account. Booking online is the quickest way to make an appointment.
If this is not possible, there is a telephone line for those who cannot book online. Please call 02476 153546 between 8am and 1pm Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays.