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Timely Medical Solutions with Interventional Radiology
- Do Your Legs get tired on walking small distances?
- Do you experience pain in your Calf, Buttock or Arm on Walking or While working?
- Have you experienced sudden Transient/Temporary Weakness of Limb, Inability to Speak, or blur in your sight?
- Do you experience sudden sever pain in abdomen After Meals?
- Swelling In Leg With Breathlessness?
- Do you experience bleeding from Throat, Cough, Nose, Stools, Urine?
If you have experienced any of the above act urgently and consult your Doctor/Vascular and Neuro-Interventional Radiologist for any or all of the above may lead to severe complications resulting in multi-organ,gangrene or even death. read more
Pain in calf, buttock or arm on walking/working, coldness of limb with colour change of toes can be due to blockage of limb arteries. This can lead to gangrene of limb. Sudden transient/temporary weakness of limb, inability to speak, inability to see can lead to stroke or Brain Attack. Sudden severe pain in abdomen (with normal examination and radiological investigations) can lead to Gangrene of Intestine.
Likewise bleeding from any source is very alarming, and its cause must be investigated instantly. Delay could result in multi-organ failure. Minimal invasive procedure like angiography with blocking of blood vessel/artery called embolisation can save life if done at the right time.
Spectrum of Interventional Radiological procedures includes
Angioplasty & Stenting
What is Interventional Radiology?
Interventional Radiology is a super specialty branch of Radiology which uses various techniques to place wires, tubes, or other instruments inside a patient to diagnose and treat an array of conditions.
If your legs gets tired on walking small distance, and you have to stop for a while, you may be suffering from blocked arteries of lower limb. This condition is similar to that of heart attack, where arteries are blocked leading to your heart. Block arteries can be a serious condition; which if not treated urgently can lead to gangrene of leg which can lead to amputation or even be a threat to life. These arteries can be treated without surgery by performing Thrombolysis, Angioplasty and stenting (procedure similar to that for heart). read more
This technique of angioplasty and stenting is commonly performed in following organs:
a) Brain: Angioplasty and stenting is performed in blood vessels supplying brain for prevention of stroke/brain attack/paralysis. Patients usually ignore warning signs in the form of Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) which are painless, symptoms of sudden weakness, inability to speak, blurring of vision are transient and patient recovers completely. This is the time when they should investigate and get angioplasty and stenting with protection device at the earliest.
b) Kidney: If blood supply to kidneys is affected by narrowing of blood vessels supplying kidneys, this results in high blood pressure and derangement of kidney functions. Angioplasty and stenting of blood vessels of kidney done in time, preserves kidneys functions and helps in control of blood pressure.
c) Intestine: Three major blood vessels supply intestine, if two blood vessels are critically obstructed patient will have pain in abdomen after meals, as after eating intestine requires maximum of pure blood supply. Angioplasty and stenting of these blood vessels will relieve pain in abdomen after meals.
Expertise, skill and hardware is now available to treat blocked vessels in any part of the body, even penile erectile dysfunction can be treated by this technique.
Thrombolysis
Thrombolysis means dissolving the blood clot (thrombus) by medicine. Interventional radiology can deliver, locally at the site, this clot dissolving medicine within the clot/thrombus and clogged blood vessel can be opened up immediately. This process can be done to save limbs, brain or any part of body where the blood gets clotted either in arteries or veins. read more
a) Brain stroke: commonly referred to as the “Painless Attack” but it is equally dangerous! The symptoms of stroke depend on what part of the brain is damaged. In some cases, a person may not even be aware that he or she has had a stroke.
A stoke manifests itself when a blockage of a blood vessel results in interruption of the blood supply to an area in the brain. A thrombosis, or blockage in a blood vessel, or an embolus, a fatty deposit or clot breaks loose and follows the blood stream until it lodges in a smaller vessel, which can literally cause the brain to starve to death, in few minutes by depriving it of blood & thereby oxygen to tissue.
Brain cell in the affected area usually die within a few hours. Strokes can impair speech, vision, movement or memory, depending on which part of the brain gets affected. Some people recover completely, while very severe attacks prove fatal for some unfortunates. Timely angiography within 3-6 hours of manifestation of stroke and injecting thrombolytic medications, like tPA, break up blood cots and can restore blood flow to the damaged area. Patients who get timely administering of this medication are more likely to have less long-term impairments.
b) Mesentric Ischaemia: Mesenteric ischemia is a medical condition in which injury of the small intestine results from inadequate blood supply to it. Causes of the reduced blood flow can include changes in the systemic circulation (Ex: Low Blood Pressure) or local factors such as constriction of blood vessel or formation and/or lodging of a blood clot. Surgical revascularization remains the treatment of choice for mesenteric ischaemia, but local thrombolytic medical treatment and vascular interventional radiological techniques have a growing role in addressing this condition.
DVT (Deep Venous Thrombosis)
Advangages of interventional Radiology procedures
- Minimal invasive still equally or more effective
- Early recovery
- Less hospitalization
- Minimal anaesthesia
- Less complications
- No scar and hence more acceptable.
Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) mainly affects the large veins in the lower leg and thigh. The clot can block blood flow and cause swelling and pain. When a clot breaks off and moves through the bloodstream, this is called as ‘embolism’. An embolus can get dislodged and may travel to blood vessel of lung leading to death.
Placement of a filter in the body’s largest vein IVC to prevent blood clots from traveling to the lungs and removal of a large blood clot from the vein or injecting of clot-busting medicines will take care of swelling and pain of leg.
Medicines fail to work in most of these cases; if not treated aggressively can lead to miserable life in form of non healing leg ulcers and black swollen legs. It can even kill patient if the clot goes and blocks lung circulation. Hence early restoration of the blood flow in these veins becomes mandatory. Interventional radiology procedures, not only can suck out the blood clot but also can dissolve it with Thrombolysis.
Embolisation
If there is bleeding through vomitus, cough, stools, urine, nose, or in the brain etc., treating them by surgery can be a cumbersome and risky job. Interventional Radiology makes the job look very easy. Intervention Radiology not only locates the bleeder but gets into the bleeding artery or vein and block them with coils (spring like wire), poly vinyl alcohol particles, gelfoam, glue, etc. This entire process does not involve any surgery and can be done under local anaesthesia.read more
Marvel of biomedical engineering and sophistication of cath lab has helped Interventional Radiology to reach nook and corner of any blood vessel in the body.
In recent time significant development in neuro intervention is intra-cranial aneurysm (ballooning of artery) coiling and AVM (abnormal communication between artery and vein) embolisation. These procedures have significant less morbidity and mortality.
With recent advent of microcatheter and microwire – benign enlargement of prostate can also be treated by embolisation.
Fibroids of uterus
Fibroids though a non cancerous tumour of uterus is still maximal responsible cause for uterus removal/ Hystrectomy in females. This major organ of female can very well be preserved and fibroid can be completely cured by marvellous procedure of interventional radiology, uterine fibroid embolization, whereby blocking its blood supply is achieved for its complete shrinkage in course of time. Uterine Fibroid Embolisation is a first line of management in the list of treatment options for fibroid in western countries. Uterine Fibroid Embolization preserves Womanhood & Motherhood.
Infertility treatment
Blockage of tubes of uterus (fallopian tubes) is responsible for infertility in nearly 40% of young females. When tubes are blocked the sperms and the ovum cannot meet and hence pregnancy cannot occur. These blocked tubes can be reopened by state of art minimal invasive, non surgical, OPD procedure called as Fallopian Tube Recanalization. FTR preseves Motherhood.
Cancer treatment
Interventional radiology has revolutionized the management of cancers in the world in last decade. It has changed the pattern of treatment in terms of being most targeted and least use of anti cancer, chemotherapeutic, harmful drugs. By this method liver, lung, kidney and other soft tissue cancers can be successfully treated. At times these treatments can be used prior to surgery to make surgery easy and complete.
Vertebroplasty
As you grow old calcium of the bones decreases, and bone become brittle. Vertebre are one of most affected bones in old age and in menopausal women. Supplementation of calcium tablets are not sufficient to keep these vertebrae strong enough and they usually collapse and have microfactures, making old age miserable, painful and bedridden. Vertebroplasty is a needle procedure wherein bone cement is injected directly into these fragile vertebrae making them a single strong block. The rational use of this underutilized procedure can make the old age more agile and pleasurable.
