WHAT ARE ENDOVASCULAR INTERVENTIONS?

Endovascular interventions are minimally invasive, catheter-based techniques used to treat vascular diseases. By entering the body through a needle puncture (percutaneous) in the skin or through a small incision, these techniques typically save the patient from the trauma and long recovery time typical of a major surgical procedure.
    Endovascular interventionists may be interventional cardiologists, vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, or interventional neuroradiologists with special training in transluminal techniques, such as percutaneous access, guidewire/catheter manipulation, balloon angioplasty, stent implantation, atherectomy, and thrombolysis.
    Nearly every vascular bed in the body can be approached intraluminally, and with the advent of the endograft, or the "internal bypass" graft, these minimally invasive techniques can now be applied to treat aneurysmal as well as occlusive atherosclerotic disease.