Shorter hospital stays and faster recoveries: the advantages of interventional radiology

Who knows what Isaac Asimov, who inspired the film 'Hallucinating Journey', would say today. In Richard Fleischer's work, the human protagonists, reduced to the size of bacteria, move from inside their bodies on a microwavel. What was pure science fiction, with the exploration of vessels and organs, is now reality. With a continuous growth in the opportunities offered by technology. Thus, more and more the radiologist becomes an operator, with benefits for the patient and the National Health Service. Thanks to the minimally invasive procedures carried out by the specialist, in fact, it is possible to achieve a reduced stay of patients in hospital, less morbidity and mortality, and therefore benefits for all healthcare stakeholders. This is recalled by experts gathered in Turin for the National Conference of the Interventional Radiology Study Section of the SIRM (Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology).

The fact that emerges from advances in technology and knowledge is well established: thanks to innovative radiological technologies, patients can be operated on with minimally invasive procedures that preserve tissue, cause fewer intra- and post-operative complications, and allow an early return to normal life. The entire course of treatment, however, must be shared with other specialists. This is confirmed by Paolo Fonio, President of the National Conference of the Interventional Radiology Study Section of the SIRM, who recalls how for the occasion "clinicians from different specialities are comparing notes, testifying to the value of these therapies in the integrated management of our patients: oncologists, surgeons from different disciplines, but also anaesthetists, who are training in different sedation techniques compared to those used in traditional surgery". All this, it must be said, with a request for more attention to be paid to the work of the interventional radiologist, also and above all on the organisational front and the need to create outpatient clinics specifically dedicated to the discipline. "It is a subject that is very close to our hearts and that we would like to bring to the attention of the institutions: we perform thousands of procedures a year, and yet we still struggle to obtain the right recognition and visibility, which would allow us to access greater operativeness," Fonio points out.

"Interventional radiology was born in the 1960s as a natural evolution of diagnostic radiology, at a time when radiologists were beginning to realise that, thanks to imaging, it was not only possible to see inside the body, but also to act on it in a targeted and minimally invasive manner: to enter a blood vessel with a simple needle and advance wires and catheters safely, not only to study it, but also to treat it, dilating its narrowed sections without resorting to open surgery,' emphasises Nicoletta Gandolfo, SIRM President. Then, over time, there has been a whirlwind development of technology and indications for vascular procedures, also thanks to increasingly precise devices, more advanced angiography rooms and the recognition of the figure of the interventional radiologist. "Today, interventional radiology represents in many cases an effective and advantageous therapeutic option, alternative or preparatory to surgery not only in the vascular field, but also in many other extra-vascular and oncological pathological conditions and in the treatment of emergencies," explains the expert.

"Today, patients are much more inclined to accept treatment with interventional radiology," adds Luca Brunese, President Elect of SIRM. "This is because the lower invasiveness and the reduction in operating risks and hospitalisation times make this treatment option much more acceptable, and in many cases also reduce the waiting time for surgery. According to the experts, the indications for interventional radiology treatment are also increasing in order to avoid resorting, in many cases, to impactful operations such as in the case of obstructions in the arteries of the lower limbs. And above all, this approach is also being used in the treatment of abdominal aneurysms or in oncology. This is also because we are constantly improving our instrumentation. "Our interventions involve the use of diagnostic imaging tools, such as CT, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, angiography, and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)," concludes Giampaolo Carrafiello, Director of Radiology at the Policlinico di Milano and Professor at the University of Milan. "By optimising these technologies, we can guarantee the patient a precision and accuracy that was once unhoped for: this means greater sustainability for the system and for the patient himself, who can return to his daily and professional activities sooner.