Diagnostic & Therapeutic Interventional Radiology Program

Overview

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s Diagnostics Institute offers a comprehensive range of interventional radiology services as part of the Diagnostic & Therapeutic Interventional Radiology Program. Interventional radiology uses imaging technologies to perform and support minimally invasive surgeries. Advanced imaging enables surgeons to manipulate surgical tools and navigate around the body with a great amount of accuracy without resorting to open surgery. This means that patients can leave the hospital sooner and recover faster.

What We Treat

The Diagnostic & Therapeutic Interventional Radiology Program team uses interventional radiology to treat patients suffering from a variety of health issues, including:

• Vascular conditions (like narrowing of the arteries, varicose veins, or blocked veins)
• Cancer (treatment for tumors and their effects on the body’s organs)
• Kidney stones
• Bladder stones.

Vascular conditions constitute the primary application of interventional radiology, followed by cancer. By collaborating with oncologists as well as physicians in Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute, program caregivers are able to provide the very best, Patients First care.

Diagnosis & Treatment

The Diagnostic & Therapeutic Interventional Radiology Program at the Diagnostics Institute allows physicians to use cutting-edge imaging techniques to make diagnoses as well as guide minimally invasive surgeries with a great deal of accuracy. The scope of diagnostic and treatment procedures performed by the highly trained program team includes:

• Stent or balloon placement: This technique may be used to unblock an artery or vein or widen a vessel in the case of vascular disease. The stent or balloon is guided into the vessel using ultrasound or other imaging technologies.
• Tumor ablation: In this procedure, the physician inserts a thin, needle-like probe into the tumor. The probe is then heated with a high-frequency current that destroys the tumor and cancer cells.
• Angiography: In this procedure, a catheter is inserted into the artery, and a dye is injected. Using imaging, the physician can view the dye’s movement and identify any blockages or narrowing of the arteries.
• Balloon angioplasty: Also known as a coronary angioplasty, this procedure uses a catheter with a balloon on the tip, inserted into the artery. The balloon is then inflated to help open a narrowed artery.
• Biliary drainage and stenting: Biliary drainage is the process in which a blocked bile duct is drained using small plastic tubes. Metal or plastic stents can then be put in place to keep the duct open.
• Central venous access: This technique allows medication or fluid to be administered directly into the venous system using a catheter that is inserted into a large vein.
• Chemoembolization: This treatment is used to supply chemotherapy, or anticancer drugs, as well as blood-blocking agents directly to the blood vessels surrounding a tumor to kill the cancer cells.
• Embolization: A catheter is used to inject small beads, which serve as blood blocking agents, into blood vessels, limiting the blood flow to a certain area of the body.
• Gastrostomy tube: This device, also known as a feeding tube or a G-tube, is inserted into the abdomen and used to provide nutrition directly to the stomach.
• Hemodialysis access maintenance: A hemodialysis access is the point at which the hemodialysis treatment – which cleans the kidneys – is connected to the vascular system. Hemodialysis access maintenance may involve the placement of stents to open up a narrowed access.
• Infection and abscess drainage: If an infection is retaining fluid or has formed an abscess – a painful mass filled with fluid – the fluid may need to be drained by placing a needle or catheter in the infected area.
• Radiofrequency ablation: Using x-ray guidance, a radiofrequency needle is directed along a nerve; the needle is heated with radiofrequency to create a lesion on the nerve, and disrupt its activity.
• Uterine fibroid embolization: X-ray guidance is used to deliver blood-blocking agents directly to the uterine artery in order to reduce the blood flow to the uterine fibroids (non-cancerous masses in the uterus).
• Varicocele embolization: In this procedure, imaging is used to guide catheter placement in a varicocele, an enlarged vein in the scrotum. The catheter is used to place a coil that diverts or blocks blood from going to the enlarged vein.
• Prostatic artery embolization for enlarged prostates: A catheter is directed into the large veins leading to the prostate and blood-blocking agents are placed in the blood vessel in order to block blood flow and reduce swelling.

Meet Our Team

The Diagnostics Institute’s Diagnostic & Therapeutic Interventional Radiology Program is a multidisciplinary collaboration of specialized, highly knowledgeable physicians and other team members. Caregivers involved in patient care for this program are:

• Interventional radiologists
• Interventional radiology technologists
• Nurses trained to work with patients undergoing interventional radiology procedures.