STROKE & NEUROVASCULAR CLINIC

 A: Neurointerventional radiologists are doctors who perform surgery without making a surgical incision. Treatments without surgery are also known as endovascular treatments. Neurointerventional radiologists are experts in minimally-invasive treatments, and use imaging equipment to see into the body and guide their procedures. 

 A: Patients go because they want the least invasive option for treatment. There is less risk, less pain and shorter recovery time for the patient who is treated with neurointerventional methods. And if you’re the patient, you come out with a bandage over the small opening where a tiny tube was introduced into your body; rather than with a long surgical cut or incision,  and your recovery time to get back to normal life is much shorter. Patients certainly do as well or better, long term when treated with these methods. 

 A: No. Today, many interventional radiology treatments are considered the more advanced, and THE right choice for many, but of course-not all, treatments. Interventional methods provide the least invasive approach to treat a wide variety of conditions. Surgery with incisions, taking weeks to heal with scars and so on, used to be the only treatment available for many conditions. Now we have newer methods with less risk and less pain and less down time for the patient. And Neurointerventionalists work closely with other specialists including surgeons. Many of our patients are referred to us by our surgical colleagues who also recognize the benefits of minimally invasive treatments. 

A: Here are just a few examples:

• Stroke
• Brain aneurysms and other abnormal blood vessels
• Certain causes of seizures
• Certain causes of seizures
• Cardiovascular disease
• Benign and malignant tumors.

Brain aneurysms are bulges on the artery wall. We treat them before they burst in order to prevent a stroke and we treat already-bleeding brain aneurysms to stop the haemorrhaging. We treat patients having seizure symptoms who have a tangle of abnormal connections between arteries and veins, called AVMs. We also treat other kinds of abnormal connections between arteries and veins on the surface of the brain, called dural arteriovenous fistulas, in order to relieve ringing in the ears (tinnitus), vision loss, and to prevent brain haemorrhage. We are the only doctors that open atherosclerotic narrowings (stenosis) in the blood vessels of the brain with angioplasty balloons or stents. We do this in order to prevent strokes from lack of blood flow (ischemia). We open up blood vessels to permit better blood flow. We also collaborate with our local cardiovascular surgeons in treating carotid artery disease in the neck. For brain tumors, we work with neurosurgeons to assist them by blocking blood flow into tumors and shrinking brain tumors, (this is called embolizing the tumor), before the surgeon removes it, thus making their surgeries easier and safer.

 A. Interventional Radiology (IR) is a specialized field within radiology. In Interventional Radiology, doctors not only interpret your medical images, but they also perform minimally invasive surgical procedures through small incisions in the body.