Laparoscopy is an operation performed in the abdomen or pelvis using small incisions with the aid of a camera. The laparoscope aids diagnosis or therapeutic interventions with a few small cuts in the abdomen.
Angioplasty, also known as balloon angioplasty and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), is a minimally invasive endovascular procedure used to widen narrowed or obstructed arteries or veins, typically to treat arterial atherosclerosis.
In medicine, a stent is a tube usually constructed of a metallic alloy or a polymer. It is inserted into the lumen of an anatomic vessel or duct to keep the passageway open. Stenting refers to the placement of a stent. The word "stent" is also used as a verb to describe the placement of such a device, particularly when a disease such as atherosclerosis has pathologically narrowed a structure such as an artery.
Angiography or arteriography is a medical imaging technique used to visualize the inside, or lumen, of blood vessels and organs of the body, with particular interest in the arteries, veins, and the heart chambers. Modern angiography is performed by injecting a radio-opaque contrast agent into the blood vessel and imaging using X-ray based techniques such as fluoroscopy.
Interventional radiology (IR) is a medical specialty that performs various minimally-invasive procedures using medical imaging guidance, such as x-ray fluoroscopy, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasound. IR performs both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures through very small incisions or body orifices. Diagnostic IR procedures are those intended to help make a diagnosis or guide further medical treatment, and include image-guided biopsy of a tumor or injection of an imaging contrast agent into a hollow structure, such as a blood vessel or a duct. By contrast, therapeutic IR procedures provide direct treatment—they include catheter-based medicine delivery, medical device placement, and angioplasty of narrowed structures.
Vascular surgery is a surgical subspecialty in which vascular diseases involving the arteries, veins, or lymphatic vessels, are managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures and surgical reconstruction. The specialty evolved from general and cardiovascular surgery where it refined the management of just the vessels, no longer treating the heart or other organs. Modern vascular surgery includes open surgery techniques, endovascular techniques and medical management of vascular diseases - unlike the parent specialities. The vascular surgeon is trained in the diagnosis and management of diseases affecting all parts of the vascular system excluding the coronaries and intracranial vasculature. Vascular surgeons also are called to assist other physicians to carry out surgery near vessels, or to salvage vascular injuries that include hemorrhage control, dissection, occlusion or simply for safe exposure of vascular structures.
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) or intravascular echocardiography is a medical imaging methodology using a specially designed catheter with a miniaturized ultrasound probe attached to the distal end of the catheter. The proximal end of the catheter is attached to computerized ultrasound equipment. It allows the application of ultrasound technology, such as piezoelectric transducer or CMUT, to see from inside blood vessels out through the surrounding blood column, visualizing the endothelium of blood vessels.
A pseudoaneurysm, also known as a false aneurysm, is a locally contained hematoma outside an artery or the heart due to damage to the vessel wall. The injury passes through all three layers of the arterial wall, causing a leak, which is contained by a new, weak "wall" formed by the products of the clotting cascade. A pseudoaneurysm does not contain any layer of the vessel wall.
The mini-maze procedures are cardiac surgery procedures intended to cure atrial fibrillation (AF), a common disturbance of heart rhythm. They are procedures derived from the original maze procedure developed by James Cox, MD.
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a minimally invasive non-surgical procedure used to treat narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary artery disease. The procedure is used to place and deploy coronary stents, a permanent wire-meshed tube, to open narrowed coronary arteries. PCI is considered 'non-surgical' as it uses a small hole in a peripheral artery (leg/arm) to gain access to the arterial system, an equivalent surgical procedure would involve the opening of the chest wall to gain access to the heart area. The term 'coronary angioplasty with stent' is synonymous with PCI. The procedure visualises the blood vessels via fluoroscopic imaging and contrast dyes. PCI is performed by an interventional cardiologists in a catheterization laboratory setting.
A drug-eluting stent (DES) is a tube made of a mesh-like material used to treat narrowed arteries in medical procedures both mechanically and pharmacologically. A DES is inserted into a narrowed artery using a balloon. Once the balloon inside the stent is inflated, the stent expands, pushing against the artery wall, keeping the artery open, thereby improving blood flow. The mesh design allows cells to grow through and around it, securing it in place.
Alcohol septal ablation (ASA) is a minimally invasive heart procedure to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
The history of invasive and interventional cardiology is complex, with multiple groups working independently on similar technologies. Invasive and interventional cardiology is currently closely associated with cardiologists, though the development and most of its early research and procedures were performed by diagnostic and interventional radiologists.
Lourdes Heart Institute and Neuro Centre (LHINC) is a new block set up in Lourdes Hospital, Cochin, Kerala, India, to cater to tertiary level care for the entire spectrum of cardiovascular and neurological disease. It was inaugurated on 16 March 2007, by Mr. A. K. Antony, the Defence Minister of India. This institute was started to meet a long-felt need to provide cardiac and neurological interventional facilities, and especially to provide interventional neurological facilities for the treatment of strokes, including selective thrombolysis and primary angioplasty for stroke which was hitherto unavailable in this part of India.
A hybrid cardiac surgical procedure in a narrow sense is defined as a procedure that combines a conventional, more invasive surgical part with an interventional part, using some sort of catheter-based procedure guided by fluoroscopy imaging in a hybrid operating room (OR) without interruption. The hybrid technique has a reduced risk of surgical complications and has shown decreased recovery time. It can be used to treat numerous heart diseases and conditions and with the increasing complexity of each case, the hybrid surgical technique is becoming more common.
Rotational angiography is a medical imaging technique based on x-ray, that allows to acquire CT-like 3D volumes during hybrid surgery or during a catheter intervention using a fixed C-Arm. The fixed C-Arm thereby rotates around the patient and acquires a series of x-ray images that are then reconstructed through software algorithms into a 3D image. Synonyms for rotational angiography include flat-panel volume CT and cone-beam CT.
A hybrid operating room is a very advanced surgical theatre that is equipped with advanced medical imaging devices such as fixed C-Arms, X-ray tomography (CT) scanners or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. These imaging devices enable minimally-invasive surgery. Minimally-invasive surgery is intended to be less traumatic for the patient and minimize incisions on the patient and perform surgery procedure through one or several small cuts.
Interventional oncology is a subspecialty field of interventional radiology that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and cancer-related problems using targeted minimally invasive procedures performed under image guidance. Interventional oncology has developed to a separate pillar of modern oncology and it employs X-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to help guide miniaturized instruments to allow targeted and precise treatment of solid tumours located in various organs of the human body, including but not limited to the liver, kidneys, lungs, and bones. Interventional oncology treatments are routinely carried out by interventional radiologists in appropriate settings and facilities.
Endoscopic optical coherence tomography, also intravascular optical coherence tomography is a catheter-based imaging application of optical coherence tomography (OCT). It is capable of acquiring high-resolution images from inside a blood vessel using optical fibers and laser technology.
Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) is a minimally invasive procedure performed during resuscitation of critically injured trauma patients. Originally developed as a less invasive alternative to emergency thoracotomy with aortic cross clamping, REBOA is performed to gain rapid control of non-compressible truncal or junctional hemorrhage. REBOA is performed first by achieving access to the common femoral artery (CFA) and advancing a catheter within the aorta. Upon successful catheter placement, an occluding balloon may be inflated either within the descending thoracic aorta or infrarenal abdominal aorta. REBOA stanches downstream hemorrhage and improves cardiac index, cerebral perfusion, and coronary perfusion. Although REBOA does not eliminate the need for definitive hemorrhage control, it may serve as a temporizing measure during initial resuscitation. Despite the benefits of REBOA, there are significant local and systemic ischemic risks. Establishing standardized REBOA procedural indications and mitigating the risk of ischemic injury are topics of ongoing investigation. Although this technique has been successfully deployed in adult patients, it has not yet been studied in children.
