Skip to main content

What is Interventional Radiology?

Interventional radiology refers to radiologists treating disease with minimally invasive surgery. These surgeries are performed using radiologic images to guide small catheters. Because many of these procedures are safer and more cost effective, interventional radiology is replacing some traditional surgeries.

Our interventional radiology team performs dozens of types of minimally invasive interventions with patients—stents, tubes, drains, ports, shunts, biopsies, embolizations, ablations, and more. Our radiologists specialize in interpreting scans, which they use to navigate in the body in real time, guided by fluoroscopy and sometimes MRI.

These specialists also work with neurologists, oncologists, and surgeons collaboratively on difficult and complex cases, providing you with cutting edge treatment options.

Find a Radiology Specialist

Benefits of Interventional Radiology

Additional benefits include:

  • Less risk and pain,
  • Shorter recovery time, and
  • In some cases no hospital stay.

Conditions & Services

Oncology

  • Percutaneous biopsy
  • Central venous ports
  • Bland embolization
  • Chemoembolization
  • Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT or Y-90)
  • Microwave ablation
  • Radiofrequency ablation
  • Cryoablation
  • Abdominal and thoracic PleurX drains

Women’s Health

  • Uterine fibroid embolization
  • Treatment of pelvic congestion syndrome
  • Fallopian tube recanalization

Men’s Health

  • Prostate artery embolization for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
  • Varicocele embolization
  • MRI-Guided prostate biopsy

Pain Management

  • Celiac plexus block and neurolysis
  • Kyphoplasty
  • Selective nerve root block
  • Epidural steroid injection
  • Facet joint injection and ablation

Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangectasia (HHT)

  • Pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (AVM) embolization

Vascular Malformations

  • Sclerotherapy

Venous Disease and Varicose Veins

  • Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) lysis
  • Endovenous laser ablation therapy (EVLT)
  • Microphlebectomy
  • IVC filters
  • Pulmonary artery lysis

Arterial Disease

  • Peripheral angioplasty and stent placement
  • Renal artery stenting

Chronic Kidney Disease & Dialysis

  • Tunneled dialysis catheters
  • Peritoneal dialysis catheters
  • AV Fistula maintenance

Liver Disease

  • Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) creation
  • Balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (BRTO)
  • Partial splenic embolization
  • Denver shunts

Neurovascular

  • Treatment of acute stroke
  • Brain aneurysm embolization
  • Arteriovenous fistula and malformation (AVF and AVM) embolization
  • Carotid artery stenting

General Interventional Radiology

  • Percutaneous biopsy
  • Gastrostomy and gastrojejunostomy tubes
  • Cholecystostomy tubes
  • Nephrostomy tubes and ureteral stents
  • Biliary drainage
  • Central venous ports
  • Abdominal and thoracic PleurX drains
  • Lymphangiography
  • Abscess drainage

About the Equipment

University of Utah Health radiology offers a full range of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic services for the community. Our radiologists are subspecialty trained in both neurological and body interventions. We use the latest medical equipment to optimize care provided to our patients. This includes a biplane angiogram suite, which allows physicians to see three dimensional images while performing procedures. This results in better care and improved outcomes.

Stories

Darla Rogers and the Mighty Y-90

 

It was Mother's Day 2014, and Darla Rogers' celebration wasn't going as planned. Some lower stomach pain had become unbearable. She feared appendicitis, but the source of the pain proved to be much more serious.

 
Find Out More

Better Biopsies of the Prostate, Thanks to MRI

 

If you're a man over the age of 50, chances are you're a little concerned about prostate cancer. After all, it's the most common solid tumor cancer for men, and 1 in 7 men in the U.S. will have it in their lifetime.

 
Find Out More

Meet Wylie Foss: the First Perseon Scholar in Interventional Radiology

 

Before he started a four-week immersion with University of Utah Health's Interventional Radiology team, 4th year medical student Wylie Foss didn't have the clearest notion of what the specialty was.

 
Find Out More