Interventional radiology

Interventional radiology specializes in imaging diagnostics and image-guided therapy, for example for vascular diseases, inflammation, tumours and pain. Their causes are localized and treated in a targeted manner using small instruments. This form of treatment is therefore also known as minimally invasive therapy.

Team

Procedure

We mainly use the following imaging methods for the image-based detection and visualization of diseases of the human body:

Angiography
Computed tomography (CT)
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Ultrasound (sonography)

Following the precise recording of a clinical picture, we can offer minimally invasive treatment procedures in many cases. Millimeter-thin instruments are inserted via a tiny access through the skin (under ultrasound, CT, MRI or fluoroscopy control) either by a geometrically direct route or along blood vessels, bile ducts or urinary tracts to the site of the disease, where the actual treatment takes place.

We also offer selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT) in collaboration with the Department of Nuclear Medicine.

Research and teaching

Our scientific focus is on research into modern navigation procedures for minimally invasive treatment, the diagnosis and treatment of vascular diseases and interventional oncology.

We hold courses as part of university teaching (human medicine curriculum) and take part in the further training of medical specialists and medical-technical radiologists (MTRAs). We are also active in the European Society for Interventional Radiology (CIRSE) and the Swiss Society for Vascular and Interventional Radiology (SSVIR) .

As specialists in image-guided minimally invasive procedures, we conduct both basic and clinical research. To this end, we cooperate closely with our numerous clinical partners and specialists at the University Hospital Basel, in Switzerland and abroad.
With this commitment, we pursue the goal of improving established procedures and techniques, testing promising new techniques and materials in studies and making the results available in scientific publications.
Our actions are always guided by the desire to treat diseases as safely and reliably as possible and with the least possible effort for the patient.

Our interventional radiology research is essentially based on the following fields of activity:

MR angiography

On the other hand, we deal with the optimization of MR angiography for the observation of various vascular diseases of the human body. The results of this research contribute to the faster, safer and more accurate imaging of diseases.

Interventional oncology

We are currently focusing our interventional oncology research on the success of therapy in the treatment of solid tumours and metastases (e.g. hepatocellular carcinoma) using intra-arterial embolization procedures (transarterial chemoembolization, radioembolization). In particular, we are investigating the extent to which magnetic resonance imaging can contribute to the early detection of therapeutic success by assessing functional parameters (e.g. diffusion, oxygen content).

Product evaluation

In cooperation with the manufacturers, we analyze the performance profile of promising minimally invasive instruments in scientific studies. In this way, we also pursue the goal of being able to offer our patients the best possible therapy and continuously optimize existing standards by using the latest methods and materials.