Interventional radiology, a boon for patients

For many, the interventional radiology procedure brought down hospital stay, for others it changed their lives forever. Patients from across the City who have undergone the procedure shared their experiences at a programme on Thursday.

The occasion was the 18th edition of the annual conference ‘Navigation’ organised by the Indian Society of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (ISVIR) on Thursday.

“I never imagined that I would be a patient myself one day,” said Dr Sahana. A gynaecologist by profession, she suffered Embolization (introduction of an Embolus within the blood stream) in her first pregnancy. With this, she also had ‘Haematoma,’ a swelling of clotted blood within the tissues.

“It was late in the night. As I had just delivered the child, I was in no condition to undergo another surgery. A late night minimally invasive procedure helped me out of the situation,” she explained.

Dr Girish B V, treasurer, ISVIR, said that in such cases, removal of uterus was the only solution. “We lost actress Smitha Patil because of this. With advances in interventional radiology, even this could be treated,” he added.

Another patient, Dr Bringi, a former scientist who worked with Hindustan Liver, was diagnosed with aneurysm (swelling of the wall of a blood vessel). Speaking of his experience, he said that while initially, he was told that had no reason to worry, very soon, it blew up to about seven centimeters.

“When I approached a cardiologist, he told me that he would set it right, but said that my life would be at risk. Later, one of my acquaintances from Mumbai referred me to Dr Girish,” he said.

Speaking about Dr Bringi’s condition, Dr Girish said that for his condition, the only other solution was to perform a bypass surgery. However, that was avoided.