THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A high-end interventional radiology lab has been opened at Chitra Medical Centre to cope with the increasing demand for minimally invasive therapies, which have been handled by the neuro-interventional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) laboratory and intensive care unit. In interventional radiology, vascular and nonvascular diseases are treated through a small incision over the skin and under the guidance of X-rays. Very thin tubes and wires, known as catheters and guide wires, are introduced into the body either through the blood vessel or directly through the tissue and the procedure is performed.
Procedures are not very risky or painful and require short hospital stay. They are done in situations involving life-threatening bleeding from lungs, digestive tract, uterus or following trauma, surgery or delivery. Other procedures include occlusion of a tangle of vessels in the body, opening and restoration of occluded artery (angioplasty), reconstruction of artery wall in ballooned arteries (aneurysm coiling) and removal of clot from brain blood vessel in stroke (mechanical thrombectomy).
Interventional radiology also helps reduce blood flow to tumors before surgical removal and for tumor therapy with direct delivery of chemotherapeutic agents or radiofrequency waves. The Rs 5.5-crore lab, unveiled by the Centre Director, Prof. Asha Kishore, on Wednesday, reinforces the centre, which manages more than 4,000 patients at the outpatient section and performs more than 1,200 inpatient procedures a year.
