“Beyond saving lives”: Current perspectives of interventional radiology in trauma

Core Tip

Core tip: Over the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in the management of traumatic injuries with inception of the concept of non operative management (NOM), which is followed if there are no peritoneal signs or hollow viscus injury. Interventional radiology (IR) is an extension of NOM which not only saves lives by achieving hemostasis at the site of vascular injury or difficult to access surgical sites but also controls rebleeding following surgery. Time and again it has proven to be a highly effective management option which successfully bridges the conservative management and emergency laparotomy. In current scenario, in vascular injury, IR can obviate emergency laparotomy not only in hemodynamically stable but unstable patients as well, as evidenced by the recent literature. Ignorance and lack of acceptance have limited the utilization of IR significantly, which if practiced judiciously will provide expedient hemodynamic control as well as faster restoration to physiological status.