Essay Sample about Interventional Radiology
Diagnostic imaging has been found to help patients avoid major surgery and instead undergo minimally invasive surgery. This has changed our way of thinking about diagnosing and treating illness by creating technological advances. Interventional radiology is a great addition to the field of radiology. It avoids visits to the operating room, reduces the need to receive anesthetics that can lead to serious side effects, and most importantly, shortens recovery time. By doing so, it will bring significant benefits to patients. Interventional radiology wouldn’t have came about if it wasn’t for Charles Dotter: The Father of Interventional Radiology.
Charles T. Dotter, often regarded as the father of interventional radiology, first performed peripheral angioplasty in 1964 and made many other important contributions to the field. Charles was born in Boston in June of 1920. A prominent student, he skipped a grade in school. As a kid, Dotter had endless energy, but was tiny for his age and had little interest in sports. Instead, he turned to mountaineering as a sports outlet. He had been curious since he was a kid and had been interested in machines. He liked working with tools and always tried to dismantle machines and put them back together. In adulthood, Dotter designed his own “conceptual trademark” in the form of a crossed pipe and wrench (Fig. 1), both because he loved mechanical things and because this emblem meant “that if a plumber can do it to pipes, we can do it to blood vessels” (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Fig.1
Dotter received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941 from Duke University. He attended medical school at Cornell. He completed an internship at the US Naval Hospital in New York State and a residency at New York Hospital. Charles was only 30 years old when he accepted a full-time faculty position at Cornell Medical School. His was really interested in angiocardiography and wrote many articles on it. At the age of 32, Charles became a professor/chairman of the Department of Radiology at University of Oregon Medical School. It was there where he invented a whole new medical specialty: Interventional Radiology. In 1964, he performed the first ever percutaneous angioplasty. Interventional radiology, interventional cardiology, endovascular surgery, interventional neurosurgery, and many other disciplines came from this innovation. The scope of Dr. Dotter's contributions to vascular and interventional radiology is vast, including the development of the modern grid-controlled x-ray tube, flow-directed balloon catheterization, double-lumen balloon catheterization, and the safety guidewire (https://www.ohsu.edu).
Charles best-recognized contribution to interventional radiology turned into the creation of transluminal angioplasty in 1964. Angioplasty is also known as balloon angioplasty and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). Angioplasty is a minimally invasive endovascular process used to widen narrowed or obstructed arteries or veins. A deflated balloon attached to a catheter is passed over a guide-wire into the narrowed vessel and then inflated to a fixed size. The balloon forces expansion of the blood vessel and the surrounding muscular wall, allowing an improved blood flow (https://en.wikipedia.org). In some procedures, a stent could be used in place of a balloon catheter. Angioplasty reduces chest pain caused by obstruction of coronary arteries and limits damage made to the heart during or right after a heart attack. It is also considered treatment for coronary and peripheral artery disease, carotid artery disease and chronic kidney disease.
When it comes to interventional radiology, there is a wide range of procedures that can be performed other than angioplasty.
