Minimally invasive interventional radiology services, including angiography, vascular malformations, and tumor ablations, boast lower costs, fewer complications and faster recovery times compared to open surgery.
However, 65 percent of patients are entirely familiar with interventional radiology (IR) with 54 percent of medical students “unclear” of IR duties.
Join Brenton D. Reading, MD, with the Division of Radiology at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, as he introduces us to IR, IR services and outcomes from his dedicated interventional radiologist team at one of the largest pediatric radiology divisions in the nation.
Selected Podcast
The Image of Interventional Radiology
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Brenton D. Reading, MD
Brenton D. Reading, MD
Brenton D. Reading, MD, is a pediatric radiologist with the Division of Radiology at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Dr. Reading received his medical degree from the University College of Medicine, Memphis, TN, completed a residency in Radiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL and a fellowship in Pediatric Radiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH.Learn more about Brenton D. Reading, MD
Transcription:
The Image of Interventional Radiology
Dr. Michael Smith (Host): Our topic today is, “Interventional, what? The Image of Interventional Radiology.” My guest today is Dr. Brenton Reading. He is a Pediatric Radiologist with the Division of Radiology at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Dr. Reading, welcome to the show.
Dr. Brenton Reading (Guest): Glad to be here.
Dr. Smith: So why don’t we just start off with -- for all of our General Practitioners out there, even some medical students, maybe some Residents in Family Practice that are listening to this show – let’s just start off with how you define Interventional Radiology and maybe contrast it to General Surgery.
Dr. Reading: Interventional Radiology is a minimally invasive image-guided treatment of all sorts of medical conditions, some of which once required open surgery. It uses advanced medical imaging – ultrasounds, X-rays, CT scans, sometimes even MRI, and some other innovative methods – to basically see inside the body and treat these complex conditions using catheters, needles, other things, to access these areas of the body to do procedures.
Dr. Smith: So even from a patient perspective, if you were to say, “Here’s three reasons why you should choose interventional radiology,” what would be those things you would say?
Dr. Reading: One of the advantages of Interventional Radiology is that it is minimally invasive, and so the recovery period after treatment in comparison to a more invasive procedure is quicker and generally easier. One of the advantages that may not be immediately obvious to a patient would be decreased cost because we do our procedures in a procedure room in the radiology area rather than in a more expensive O-R suite up on the operating room. Those are the two main advantages that it’s minimally invasive and, in general, that there’s decreased cost because of the way the procedure is performed. One of the other advantages is -- often times in Interventional Radiology because of the way things are scheduled and the way things – it often takes less time to get a procedure scheduled in Interventional Radiology than it would up in the operating room.
Dr. Smith: And, of course, from that patient perspective, when you say minimally invasive, that usually comes along with fewer complications, correct?
Dr. Reading: In general, yes. A lot of times the complications that we talk about with patients are similar to what would occur with open surgery, but in general, yes, it does tend to decrease the severity or a number of complications that could occur during a procedure.
Dr. Smith: So here’s an interesting statistic, 65% of patients are familiar with Interventional Radiology, yet only 54% of medical students understand the duties of an Interventional Radiologist [LAUGHS]. What’s going on? Are we not teaching the medical students enough?
Dr. Reading: Yeah, I can remember when I was in medical school, I didn’t have a good idea what Radiology or Interventional Radiology was. Early on in medical school, we get exposed to Internal Medicine and Surgery, and a lot of those other more well-known specialties, and it wasn’t until I was in my fourth year of medical school that I was actually able to do a rotation in Radiology and ended up loving it. I think some of it may be that medical students just don’t get exposed to Radiology, or Interventional Radiology as early as some of the other specialties.
Dr. Smith: Right. So let’s talk specifically about some of the services that an Interventional Radiologist can perform or offer.
Dr. Reading: At Children’s Mercy, we provide all sorts of procedures, and it ranges from everything from vascular access, which is probably one of the most common things that we do. We also will drain abscesses, we’ll perform lumbar punctures, and those are some of the more basic procedures we do. We also do more complicated procedures where we do angiographies, sclerotherapy, percutaneous ablations and things where we place catheters into open up arteries that are blocked or to close up arteries that might be bleeding.
Dr. Smith: So what’s the future of Interventional Radiology? Are there any trends, or new ways to use IR that you see coming down in the future?
Dr. Reading: Right, so one of the things that we’ve been increasing at Children’s Mercy is in treating cancer patients with percutaneous ablations, or transarterial chemoembolizations where we actually go into the tumor and will either heat up the tumor, or freeze the tumor, or administer embolic agents with chemotherapy in them, to directly treat the tumor locally.
Dr. Smith: Yeah, and so that’s going to be something – is that something more specific to what Children’s Mercy is doing, or are other centers around the country starting to use Interventional Radiology for those kind of cancer procedures?
Dr. Reading: I think it is a national trend and it’s something that has been used more frequently on the adult side for their oncologic patients but is becoming more frequently used in pediatrics, as well.
Dr. Smith: Last question here, so from maybe a medical student’s perspective, or if there’s that fourth-year medical student that may have an opportunity to take Radiology as an elective that year, what would you like to stay to that student? What’s the career look like, or the overall need of Interventional Radiologists, looks like for the future.
Dr. Reading: Over the six years that I’ve been practicing Interventional Radiology at Children’s Mercy Hospital, our volume has increased every year. I think we’re up ten to fifteen percent in volume from last year, just this year. There’s a steady increase in the number of procedures, the complexity of procedures, of things that we’re able to do and are doing for patients in Interventional Radiology, so it’s definitely an area where I think there’s growth going forward. One of the concerns that some Radiology Residents have is is Telemedicine going to take over Radiology, and if you’re doing Interventional Radiology, you have to physically be there to do the procedure, so that’s an advantage in that aspect. When medical students are looking at different areas, I would just encourage them just to check out Radiology and Interventional Radiology. I’ve found it an incredibly rewarding field, and it’s a great way to practice medicine.
Dr. Smith: Nice, thank you, so much, Dr. Reading, for the work that you’re doing a Children’s Mercy, and for giving us a nice little summary of Interventional Radiology. You’re listening to Transformational Pediatrics with Children’s Mercy Kansas City. For more information, you go to ChildrensMercyorg, that’s ChildrensMercy.org. I’m Dr. Mike Smith, thanks for listening.
The Image of Interventional Radiology
Dr. Michael Smith (Host): Our topic today is, “Interventional, what? The Image of Interventional Radiology.” My guest today is Dr. Brenton Reading. He is a Pediatric Radiologist with the Division of Radiology at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Dr. Reading, welcome to the show.
Dr. Brenton Reading (Guest): Glad to be here.
Dr. Smith: So why don’t we just start off with -- for all of our General Practitioners out there, even some medical students, maybe some Residents in Family Practice that are listening to this show – let’s just start off with how you define Interventional Radiology and maybe contrast it to General Surgery.
Dr. Reading: Interventional Radiology is a minimally invasive image-guided treatment of all sorts of medical conditions, some of which once required open surgery. It uses advanced medical imaging – ultrasounds, X-rays, CT scans, sometimes even MRI, and some other innovative methods – to basically see inside the body and treat these complex conditions using catheters, needles, other things, to access these areas of the body to do procedures.
Dr. Smith: So even from a patient perspective, if you were to say, “Here’s three reasons why you should choose interventional radiology,” what would be those things you would say?
Dr. Reading: One of the advantages of Interventional Radiology is that it is minimally invasive, and so the recovery period after treatment in comparison to a more invasive procedure is quicker and generally easier. One of the advantages that may not be immediately obvious to a patient would be decreased cost because we do our procedures in a procedure room in the radiology area rather than in a more expensive O-R suite up on the operating room. Those are the two main advantages that it’s minimally invasive and, in general, that there’s decreased cost because of the way the procedure is performed. One of the other advantages is -- often times in Interventional Radiology because of the way things are scheduled and the way things – it often takes less time to get a procedure scheduled in Interventional Radiology than it would up in the operating room.
Dr. Smith: And, of course, from that patient perspective, when you say minimally invasive, that usually comes along with fewer complications, correct?
Dr. Reading: In general, yes. A lot of times the complications that we talk about with patients are similar to what would occur with open surgery, but in general, yes, it does tend to decrease the severity or a number of complications that could occur during a procedure.
Dr. Smith: So here’s an interesting statistic, 65% of patients are familiar with Interventional Radiology, yet only 54% of medical students understand the duties of an Interventional Radiologist [LAUGHS]. What’s going on? Are we not teaching the medical students enough?
Dr. Reading: Yeah, I can remember when I was in medical school, I didn’t have a good idea what Radiology or Interventional Radiology was. Early on in medical school, we get exposed to Internal Medicine and Surgery, and a lot of those other more well-known specialties, and it wasn’t until I was in my fourth year of medical school that I was actually able to do a rotation in Radiology and ended up loving it. I think some of it may be that medical students just don’t get exposed to Radiology, or Interventional Radiology as early as some of the other specialties.
Dr. Smith: Right. So let’s talk specifically about some of the services that an Interventional Radiologist can perform or offer.
Dr. Reading: At Children’s Mercy, we provide all sorts of procedures, and it ranges from everything from vascular access, which is probably one of the most common things that we do. We also will drain abscesses, we’ll perform lumbar punctures, and those are some of the more basic procedures we do. We also do more complicated procedures where we do angiographies, sclerotherapy, percutaneous ablations and things where we place catheters into open up arteries that are blocked or to close up arteries that might be bleeding.
Dr. Smith: So what’s the future of Interventional Radiology? Are there any trends, or new ways to use IR that you see coming down in the future?
Dr. Reading: Right, so one of the things that we’ve been increasing at Children’s Mercy is in treating cancer patients with percutaneous ablations, or transarterial chemoembolizations where we actually go into the tumor and will either heat up the tumor, or freeze the tumor, or administer embolic agents with chemotherapy in them, to directly treat the tumor locally.
Dr. Smith: Yeah, and so that’s going to be something – is that something more specific to what Children’s Mercy is doing, or are other centers around the country starting to use Interventional Radiology for those kind of cancer procedures?
Dr. Reading: I think it is a national trend and it’s something that has been used more frequently on the adult side for their oncologic patients but is becoming more frequently used in pediatrics, as well.
Dr. Smith: Last question here, so from maybe a medical student’s perspective, or if there’s that fourth-year medical student that may have an opportunity to take Radiology as an elective that year, what would you like to stay to that student? What’s the career look like, or the overall need of Interventional Radiologists, looks like for the future.
Dr. Reading: Over the six years that I’ve been practicing Interventional Radiology at Children’s Mercy Hospital, our volume has increased every year. I think we’re up ten to fifteen percent in volume from last year, just this year. There’s a steady increase in the number of procedures, the complexity of procedures, of things that we’re able to do and are doing for patients in Interventional Radiology, so it’s definitely an area where I think there’s growth going forward. One of the concerns that some Radiology Residents have is is Telemedicine going to take over Radiology, and if you’re doing Interventional Radiology, you have to physically be there to do the procedure, so that’s an advantage in that aspect. When medical students are looking at different areas, I would just encourage them just to check out Radiology and Interventional Radiology. I’ve found it an incredibly rewarding field, and it’s a great way to practice medicine.
Dr. Smith: Nice, thank you, so much, Dr. Reading, for the work that you’re doing a Children’s Mercy, and for giving us a nice little summary of Interventional Radiology. You’re listening to Transformational Pediatrics with Children’s Mercy Kansas City. For more information, you go to ChildrensMercyorg, that’s ChildrensMercy.org. I’m Dr. Mike Smith, thanks for listening.