Interventional Radiology - Current and Future
Of course there are important interventional radiological procedures for every part of the body and every system, arguably with the exception of the skin. If you look back over the development of IR year on year, you can pick out significant advances that have not only increased the scope of our work, but have improved outcomes and offered better patient safety. However, if I were to single out a development that I personally think has been revolutionary, it would be the endovascular treatment of abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysms. When I was a fellow in Auckland in 1994, I remember reading reports of Parodi's first experimental cases of endovascular aortic repair. Across the globe we now routinely undertake aortic repair replacement of the aorta by using minimal surgical or even percutaneous access. While that is still a major procedure, it has completely changed the way that we look at dealing with a major life-threatening condition. The need for major surgery in literally millions of patients has been removed by the progressive development of image-guided procedures.
What Have Been the Most Prominent Advances? Has There Been a Single Procedure That You Think Has Had the Most Impact?
Of course there are important interventional radiological procedures for every part of the body and every system, arguably with the exception of the skin. If you look back over the development of IR year on year, you can pick out significant advances that have not only increased the scope of our work, but have improved outcomes and offered better patient safety. However, if I were to single out a development that I personally think has been revolutionary, it would be the endovascular treatment of abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysms. When I was a fellow in Auckland in 1994, I remember reading reports of Parodi's first experimental cases of endovascular aortic repair. Across the globe we now routinely undertake aortic repair replacement of the aorta by using minimal surgical or even percutaneous access. While that is still a major procedure, it has completely changed the way that we look at dealing with a major life-threatening condition. The need for major surgery in literally millions of patients has been removed by the progressive development of image-guided procedures.
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