Kerala: Chitra Medical Centre gets a new digital lab

Thiruvanathapuram: The growing demand for minimally invasive therapies has resulted in a high-end Interventional Radiology Lab being set up at Chitra Medical Center. The Neuro-Interventional Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) laboratory and intensive care unit has been handling the workload.

Vascular and nonvascular diseases are treated through a small incision over the skin and under the guidance of X-rays in interventional radiology.Blood vessels or tissues introduce very thin tubes and wires known as catheters and guide wires into the body for the procedure to be performed.

Not very risky or painful, the procedures involve short stays at the hospital. The procedures are performed during life-threatening bleeding from lungs, digestive tract, uterus or following trauma, surgery or delivery.

Other procedures include occlusion of a tangle of vessels in the body, opening and restoration of the occluded artery (angioplasty), reconstruction of artery wall in ballooned arteries (aneurysm coiling) and removal of a clot from brain blood vessel in stroke (mechanical thrombectomy).

Interventional Radiology also helps in reducing blood flow to tumours before their removal through surgeries and for tumour therapy with direct delivery of chemotherapeutic agents or radiofrequency waves.

The Rs 5.5-crore lab, unveiled by the Centre Director, Prof. Asha Kishore, on Wednesday, bolsters the centre, which has a footfall of 4,000 patients at the outpatient section and performs more than 1,200 inpatient procedures annually, reports Deccan Chronicle.