Percutaneous cholecystostomy (PC) is usually an image-guided procedure that involves placing a drainage catheter directly into the gallbladder. The procedure has an important clinical application in emergency treatment of gallbladder disease. I said it is ''usually'' an image-guided procedure; however, our institution had several patients in need ...

Now that Halloween has passed, I would like to return to our discussion on peripheral vascular disease. I would like to devote this entry to an exploration of the pathophysiology of lower extremity occlusive disease (LEOD). LEOD is a progressive disease--specifically, chronic ischemia of the lower limbs due to the atherosclerotic process ...

Happy Halloween everyone, even though I am not a fan of the celebrations, I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable time. It is a nice time of the year and I do enjoy fall until it is time to turn the clocks back. Last week I drove to New Hampshire to visit my son for parents' day at his college, and I must say it was a very scenic ride, even ...

Times are changing. That is a fact we all know too well. In a lot of hospitals cardiac catheterization labs and interventional radiology are being joined in one department with the name cardiovascular interventional services. It helps hospitals consolidate services that utilize very expensive equipment. I am not getting into all the politics ...

This post is in response to a comment on a previous blog. That particular blog was on peripheral angioplasty and stenting. Jo from Gulphport,MS, wrote in concerning the coding for multiple stenting procedures in the superficial femoral artery (SFA). The question was, could there be multiple charges with several stents placed in the SFA. It has ...

CT imaging for cardiac calcifications has become quite popular with a lot of cardiac practices. In this exam, at times, there are incidental findings that may show up in other areas within the picture. The question is are these always significant and what procedures should be carried out. Naturally there has been several research studies carried ...

In this installment I would like to go back over one interesting finding from the past. In the 1970's I was working in an interventional department, of course we called it ''Special Procedures'' at the time, of a rather large hospital. The cardiologist also used the suite to do cardiac studies. Techniques and equipment were rather primitive, if ...

Here we are in September, the summer is unofficially kaput, well the official end will be next week. Weekends at the Jersey shore are basically over, there is no more '' Orr at the Shore'' spots on the local news and weather report. Actually the news van followed me all the way down the expressway on one of my trips this year. No more walking the ...

We can all envision the typical signs of a person having a heart attack. A person clutching their chest, breaking out in a sweat and feeling like there is an elephant on their chest. I knew a gentleman who was having an acute MI who held his chest so tight the emergency medical crew broke his humerus trying to pry his hands off of his ...

Several weeks ago an article I wrote appeared in Advance web. It was an article that discussed radiation and safety in the cardiovascular interventional suite. Two weeks ago a story was published concerning the amount of radiation the general public was receiving from overused diagnostic studies. Maybe someone is paying attention to my articles; ...