Interventional radiology uses cutting-edge imaging techniques that diagnose and treat many problems that would otherwise require surgery. HealthyU Clinics has offices in Surprise, Phoenix, Chandler, Gilbert, Avondale, Glendale, and Mesa, Arizona, where highly skilled providers perform interventional radiology procedures. To learn more about the benefits of interventional radiology and the practices offered by HealthyU Clinics, call your nearest office today or book an appointment online.
Interventional radiology uses medical imaging techniques to guide doctors during diagnostic and treatment procedures. These procedures are minimally invasive, requiring only tiny incisions. Image guidance ensures optimal precision, helping doctors avoid damaging tissues, organs, and skin surrounding the treatment site.
This means procedures are significantly less painful than traditional surgery. HealthyU Clinics practitioners perform the procedures in-office and patients go home the same day. Patients typically recover quickly with little or no scarring.
When you undergo interventional radiology, your provider uses ultrasound and fluoroscopy (moving X-ray) to carry out procedures like inserting a catheter (slim, flexible tube) into a blood vessel. You might need a mild sedative and/or local anesthesia to ensure your comfort, but patients rarely require a general anesthetic.
Interventional radiology has many uses, including:
This diagnostic procedure examines the inside of your blood vessels for narrowing and weaknesses. The interventional radiologist can also treat the blood vessel problems with balloon angioplasty (widening narrowed arteries), stenting (inserting a mesh tube to hold arteries open), thrombolysis (breaking up blood clots), or embolization (shutting off a blood vessel).
Interventional radiology procedures guide your provider when placing drainage tubes to remove excess fluid, feeding tubes for people who can’t eat, and central lines for kidney dialysis.
Interventional radiology techniques enable your provider to perform an accurate biopsy, extracting tissue samples for lab analysis.
Your provider can draw excess fluid out of your joints using a needle that utilizes interventional radiology techniques.
Photoevaporation involves using lasers to destroy painful bumps caused by vascular malformations (abnormal blood vessels).
An abscess is an abnormal fluid-filled pocket. The pressure buildup from the excess fluid can cause severe pain and tenderness, so your provider drains the abscess to relieve your symptoms.
Your provider injects a steroid and/or local anesthetic into a painful joint, nerve cluster, or part of your spine to relieve inflammation and pain.
Interventional radiology techniques can be used to treat varicose veins, including procedures like endovenous laser treatment (EVLT) and sclerotherapy.
This is a minimally invasive procedure that can shrink fibroids in the uterus, relieving symptoms like heavy menstrual bleeding and pelvic pain.
This procedure is used to treat chronic knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. It involves blocking the blood flow to certain areas of the knee, reducing inflammation and pain.
This is a minimally invasive treatment for an enlarged prostate. It involves blocking the blood supply to the prostate, causing it to shrink and relieving symptoms.
This procedure is used to treat frozen shoulder syndrome. It involves blocking the blood flow to certain areas of the shoulder, reducing inflammation and pain.
This procedure uses heat generated by radio waves to destroy cancer cells. Under image guidance, a thin, needle-like probe is inserted through the skin and into the tumor. The tip of the probe releases radiofrequency energy that heats and destroys the cancer cells. It can also be used in the spine or large joints to destroy the nerve endings.
Like radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation uses heat to destroy cancer cells. However, it uses microwave energy, which can create larger treatment zones and perform the procedure more quickly.
This procedure involves freezing the cancer cells to kill them. A thin, needle-like probe is inserted through the skin and into the tumor under image guidance. The probe then releases a gas that freezes the cells, causing them to die.
This procedure is used to treat liver cancer. It involves injecting small particles into the artery that supplies blood to the tumor. This blocks the blood flow, causing the tumor to starve and shrink.
These procedures are used to treat painful vertebral compression fractures, often caused by osteoporosis or cancer. In vertebroplasty, medical-grade bone cement is injected into the fractured vertebra to stabilize the fracture and relieve pain. Kyphoplasty involves the insertion of a small balloon into the vertebra, which is then inflated to create a space that is filled with bone cement. Both procedures can significantly reduce pain and improve spinal stability.
The IVC filter is a small, cage-like device that is placed in the inferior vena cava, a large vein that carries blood from the lower body to the heart. The filter catches blood clots before they can reach the lungs, while still allowing blood to flow around the clots. This procedure is typically performed on patients who are at risk for pulmonary embolism but cannot take anticoagulant medications, or in cases where anticoagulant medications are not effective.