Advocate Good Shepherd interventional radiologists perform minimally invasive procedures using image-guided techniques. Because these techniques are less invasive than those used in traditional open surgery, recovery time often is faster and patients can experience less pain and fewer complications.
Benefits of interventional radiology:
- Minimally invasive alternative to surgery
- Performed to diagnose and treat a wide variety of conditions
- Uses targeted treatment, reducing trauma to the body
- Faster recovery times
- Reduces pain and chance of complications
Conditions we treat
Many of the conditions now treated with interventional radiology traditionally had been treated with more invasive procedures, such as open surgery. Conditions treated by Advocate Good Shepherd interventional radiologists include:
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm
- Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
- Dialysis catheter placement and fistula/graft maintenance
- Pulmonary embolism
- Liver cancer (primary or metastatic)
- Pelvic congestion syndrome (female gonadal vein varices)
- Peripheral artery disease
- Spinal compression fractures
- Uterine fibroids
- Varicoceles and male infertility
- Varicose veins
Minimally invasive procedures
Unlike traditional surgery, minimally invasive procedures use imaging guidance for the insertion of a needle to deliver treatment precisely where needed. This technique may be used to perform biopsies, inject drugs, or burn or freeze tumors. Sometimes a catheter is inserted to drain fluid or to perform a procedure to open blocked arteries. Minimally invasive procedures performed by Advocate Good Shepherd interventional radiologists include:
- Arterial angioplasty/atherectomy/stent placement
- Catheter-directed thrombolysis
- Chemoembolization
- Cryoablation
- Embolization (varicocele)
- Image-guided biopsy
- Kyphoplasty
- Radioembolization
- Radiofrequency ablation
- SIR-spheres
- Vein ablation