Interventional Radiology

IR is at the forefront of novel cancer treatments, as interventional oncology (IO) is rapidly becoming a subspecialty of IR. In fact, at Temple Health, our faculty has developed specialized expertise in many facets of IO therapies. These include highly specialized embolization procedures to destroy tumors and stop bleeding as well as intricate direct ablation of tumors in the liver and throughout the body, including the kidneys, lungs, abdomen, and extremities. Our physicians are trained in microwave, radiofrequency ablations that precisely target and burn tumors as well as cryoablation to freeze these lesions.

Caring for cancer patients involves much more than performing the procedures. Our team is part of a full service program in which we work with patients from the time of consultation through all parts of treatment and follow up care. We are a multidisciplinary service working hand in hand with pulmonary, oncologic, surgical, hepatology and other specialists to provide state of the art therapies for our patients.

Patients with liver disease require extensive care. When you are dealing with cirrhosis, hepatitis C, or additional end stage liver conditions, you may suffer life threatening consequences that range from variceal bleeding, to refractory ascites (fluid in the abdomen). Our skilled doctors have specific experience in treating these complications of liver disease with procedures that range from simple drainages of fluid and liver biopsies, to life saving procedures like Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS) and Balloon-Occluded Retrograde Transvenous Obliteration (BRTO). Patients with liver cancer, whether it is primary or metastatic, can sometimes benefit from portal vein embolizations to destroy the damaged part of the liver and allow enlargement of the healthy liver.

Interventional radiology is often called upon for our experience with vein services, including the placement of chemotherapy ports, dialysis access, plasmapheresis catheters, hickman lines, central lines and peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC).

When drainage of blocked kidneys or bile ducts occur, interventional radiologists insert percutaneous catheters to assist in recovery and reroute the obstruction.

Temple’s interventional radiologists offer targeted pain management services, providing pain relief for many types of spine conditions ranging from herniated discs to joint pain. Using x-ray guidance, we are able to precisely target steroid injections, epidural injections, selective nerve root blocks, and joint and bursa injections throughout the body to help relieve pain. Our doctors also can perform percutaneous discectomy to relieve focal herniated disc symptoms as well as kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty for collapsed vertebra.