For the last two decades, radiologists have used their skills to treat as well as diagnose, using miniaturized equipment inserted into the body through very small incisions to repair damaged blood vessels, perform gynecological procedures, work within the brain, drain abscesses and much more. Interventional radiologists specialize in minimally invasive procedures that use ultrasound and other technologies to guide their instruments. Because these procedures don't require open surgery, patients need less anesthesia and often can leave the hospital the same day. Recovery time is faster and less painful with a lower risk of infection.

Working with other specialists, Southside Hospital's interventional radiologists do the following procedures:

• Angiography, which uses a catheter to inject dye into the peripheral blood vessels to diagnose disease
• Balloon angioplasty, or opening a blocked blood vessel by guiding a balloon to the blockage, and inflating it to widen vessels in the aorta, legs, arms, kidneys, liver, and elsewhere in the body
• Stent placement, or putting a small mesh tube in a blood vessel in the legs, arms, kidneys and elsewhere to keep the vessels open
• Needle biopsies
• Placement of drains in the liver, kidneys and other organs
• Thermolysis, the use of heat to destroy diseased tissue
• Thrombolysis, which uses catheters threaded through blood vessels to surround a blood clot with clot-dissolving drugs
• Embolization, which blocks the blood supply to a tumor, particularly uterine fibroid tumors, or an aneurysm, which is a balloon-shaped bubble in the wall of an artery
• Placement of gastrotomy feeding tubes
• Placement of venous access lines so medications can be delivered directly into the blood stream, and blood can be drawn for tests
• Placement of vena cava filters in the body's largest vein to prevent blood clots from entering the lungs

Most interventional procedures take place in a state-of-the-art Imaging Laboratory, but Southside also uses a state-of-the-art portable C-Arm Unit when patients are treated outside the Radiology Department, to give the radiologist the best possible image guidance during the procedure.