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In This Section
Hospital-Based Interventional Radiology Services
The procedures that follow are performed by the Interventional Radiologists of Lake Medical Imaging & Vascular Institute at Leesburg Regional Medical Center and The Villages Regional Hospital. Patient consultations prior to scheduling these hospital-based procedures, however, can be held in our outpatient centers, allowing the patient privacy, easy access, and expediency of appointment.
Vertebroplasty
Vertebroplasty is used to treat pain caused by osteoporotic compression fractures. Vertebroplasty is an image-guided, minimally invasive, nonsurgical therapy used to strengthen a broken vertebra (spinal bone) that has been weakened by osteoporosis or, less commonly, cancer. Vertebroplasty can increase the patient’s functional abilities, allow a return to the previous level of activity, and prevent further vertebral collapse. It is usually successful at alleviating the pain caused by a compression fracture. Often performed on an outpatient basis, vertebroplasty is accomplished by injecting an orthopedic cement mixture through a needle into the fractured bone.
Radiofrequency Tumor Ablation
Many methods of minimally invasive therapy have been tried in recent years to eliminate tumors in the liver, kidneys, and lungs. One of the most promising is called radiofrequency ablation, sometimes referred to as RFA. A special needle electrode is placed in the tumor under the guidance of an imaging method such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) scanning, or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. A radiofrequency current is then passed through the electrode to heat the tumor tissue near the needle tip and ablate – or eliminate – it. The heat from radiofrequency energy also closes up small blood vessels, thereby causing only minimal discomfort. RFA may be done as an outpatient procedure without general anesthesia. Admission to the hospital is often not necessary.
Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty (Balloon Angioplasty) and Vascular Stenting
Angioplasty is a way of opening a narrowed or closed blood vessel without having to do major surgery. Instead, a catheter with a tiny balloon at its tip is inserted into the vessel – usually one of the coronary arteries supplying the heart wall or a major artery bringing blood to an arm or leg. After advancing the catheter until its tip is at the site of blockage, the balloon is inflated and then deflated and removed. The narrowing or blockage most often is caused by arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, when fatty plaque forms on the inner wall of the artery and becomes larger, gradually cutting down on free blood flow. Expanding the balloon stretches the arterial wall and disrupts the fatty plaque, helping to restore blood flow.
Between 70% and 90% of angioplasty procedures use a stent, a hollow thin-walled wire mesh tube, to keep the vessel open after widening it. Otherwise, because arteriosclerosis is an ongoing disease, more plaque might form and again limit blood flow. The stent is placed on to the balloon and pressed firmly against the artery wall when inflating it. The balloon is then deflated, leaving the stent in place to act as a scaffold.
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