A Review of Interventional Radiology Treatments for Chronic Pain

Interventional radiology procedures are being increasingly used to mitigate chronic pain. In addition to established therapies such as thermal bone lesion ablation, kyphoplasty, and chemical neurolysis, ongoing research has shown promising results for the use of embolization in treatment of osteoarthritic knee pain and chronic pain secondary to adhesive shoulder capsulitis. This review will highlight some of the most common interventional radiology pain procedures, as well as provide insight into future pain-relieving embolization.     

Interventional Radiology

Purpose  

To demonstrate a simple low-cost system for tele-echocardiology, focused on paediatric cardiology applications.     

血管性介入放射学的并发症

对1024例患者进行了血管内介入性诊断或治疗。除栓塞综合症和轻度暂时性骨髓抑制外，发生导管断裂，皮肤坏死、出血、胰腺异位栓塞，胃穿孔各1例；导管打结、离子型造影剂过敏各2例；血管痉挛与缺血，药物并发症各3例，文中对并发症的原因、处理及如何避免等问题作了讨论。     

Teamwork and Communication in Interventional Radiology

Teamwork and communication in the modern era are essential to the delivery of safe reliable patient care. As the complexity of the patient's disease entity increases and potential interventional procedures are warranted, consolidation of vast amounts of information from multiple teams is required. Thus, exceptional teamwork and communication are necessary for coordinated patient care. Breakdowns in teamwork and communication can lead to mistakes and breaches in patient safety. The purpose of this article is to review the fundamental principles and better understand the underlying reasons for dysfunctional teams and poor communication in the interventional radiology suite.     

Improving Workflow Efficiency in Interventional Radiology

Late starts result in late finishes which creates inefficient workflow. The purpose of this quality-improvement project was to improve workflow efficiency in interventional radiology (IR) at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. Six articles reviewed for this project demonstrated underlying problems with workflow efficiency in procedural areas that should be addressed. Interventions including checklists, facilitators, reminder e-mails to staff, requiring staff to come in earlier, and reporting arrival times of staff to supervisors helped improve on-time starts and workflow efficiency. A preimplementation and postimplementation retrospective chart review was used to evaluate this project. Random samples of 200 charts were reviewed before and after implementation, to establish the percentage of on-time starts. All patient satisfaction surveys received during the 4 months were reviewed for response to the item “My procedure began at the time it was scheduled.” Percentage of on-time starts and percentage of patients scoring “agree” or “strongly agree” on the satisfaction survey were compared before and after implementation. On-time starts increased from 29% and 24% in the 2 months before implementation to 34% and 40% in the 2 months after implementation. The item scored on the satisfaction survey increased from 73% and 83% before implementation and to 93% and 100% after implementation. In conclusion, a comprehensive checklist and increased physician reminders of first-case starts sent via e-mail helped to improve on-time starts in IR and increase patient satisfaction.