An Interventional Radiologist – IR for short – can get anywhere within the human body without opening up the patient. Working through a tiny puncture hole the IR uses high end technology to literally see right through the patient whilst navigating his/her instruments through the body. Be it either in a straight line (i.e. with a needle, probe, antenna etc) or by exploiting existing pathways such as arteries, veins, lymph vessels, bile ducts, urinary tracts, or potential spaces such as peritoneum, pleural etc. (i.e. through catheterization) the IR delivers treatments in almost every organ system of the body. During these procedures most of the time the patient will be awake, often being able to leave the hospital the same or the next day.
To put it more simply: If you have a bloodcloth in your brain the IR will remove it, if you have a tumour in your liver the IR will burn it. If you’re bleeding uncontrollably the IR will stop it from the inside; If your vessels are blocked for some reason the IR will unclog them. There is no end to the myriad of treatments that his department has to offer, often being the first or last line of defense, and sometimes being the only line of defense.
Although some may have come to think of it as a Department of Minimal Invasive Surgery it should more appropriately be called the Department of Medical Wizardry. Much like the wizards of Unseen University* interventional radiologists live, breath and operate in their own little cosmos of the academic hospital (i.e. the angiosuites), rarely seen by the public but wielding tremendous (healing) powers.
This site is not a testimony to their grandeur, nor is it a Grand Codex of some sort. It is merely a simple scroll, used for entertainment and teaching. Welcome to the IR handbook.
