What Is Interventional Radiology?

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If you’ve heard the term “interventional radiology” recently, you’re probably curious about what it means. Let’s start with the definition, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine: interventional radiology, or IR, uses minimally invasive image-guided procedures to diagnose and treat disease in almost all organ systems. This means that specialists in this area find ways to treat patients using the least-invasive techniques available.

How Does IR Work?

Using the latest equipment, interventional radiologists can look inside a patient’s body to determine more about a specific medical condition. Depending on the part of your body and the symptoms experienced by the patient, doctors may use some of the following painless techniques, machines and equipment:

•X-rays
•CT scans
•Nuclear medicine scans
•MRI scans
•Ultrasound

Interventional radiologists are doctors who train for an additional six- or seven-year period after medical school to learn the latest techniques in this field. Stanford Medicine points out that because of their in-depth knowledge of interventional radiology coupled with clinical experience across all specialties, they can use IR techniques to treat disease right at the source, without surgery.

What Does IR Treat?

As modern medicine finds more ways to treat patients efficiently, the list continues to grow for how IR can diagnose and/or treat disease in nearly every organ of the body. Here are a few of the many medical issues treated by interventional radiology:

•Angioplasty and stent placements
•Cancers such as bone, breast, kidney, liver and lung
•Hypertension and end-stage renal disease
•Infertility
•Liver disease
•Osteoporosis
•Pediatric fields
•Chronic pelvic pain
•Smoking
•Trauma
•Uterine fibroids
•Varicose veins
•Vascular disease

Stanford Hospital provides a fuller list of medical issues treated using interventional radiology, as well as patient education links and videos.

What Are the Benefits?

Because IR uses the least invasive techniques available today, the patient experiences minimized risk and improved health outcomes, notes Johns Hopkins Medicine, adding that the procedures also include less risk, less pain and quicker recovery time compared to open surgery.

With the latest advancements in medical technology, many conditions that once would have required surgery can now be treated by professionals with less invasive measures using interventional radiology.