Vascular Interventional Radiology (VIR)

The vascular interventional radiology procedure is minimally invasive and can help treat - acute stroke, aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, carotid, intracranial & vertebral stenosis / narrowing, uterine fibroids, vertebral compression fractures, gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatoma & other tumours and biliary obstructions.

During Procedure

A small needle and a tube are inserted from the groin into the artery or vein. The needle and tube can go up to the brain, down to the toe, or half way and stop at the pelvis. This procedure also allows access to the intestines, to the liver to treat cancer as well as other parts of the body where a cancer may have spread. By performing interventional radiology, a lot of common procedures can be converted into minimally invasive procedures. Patients feel much more comfortable and may also shorten their hospital stay.

• Number of procedures performed – over 10,000 cases
• Success Rate – approximately 95%
• Complication Rate – less than 3 %

Typical Side Effects:

• Only minimal side effects have been observed when this procedure was used to treat bleeding of the brain.
• Pain, fever and vomiting were observed when treating cancerous regions for a few days after treatment.

Anesthesia:This procedure is performed under sedation or local anesthesia, except certain complex brain cases

Hospitalization: 1 to 2 days

Recuperation:Typically 5 - 7 days

Complication risks for individual procedures

• Neural cases – 10%
• Uterine fibroid and chemo embolization – less than 1%
• Intestine – 3%