KARACHI: Only 30 public and private hospitals across the country are offering interventional radiology — an advanced branch of radiology practiced across the world for effective treatment — and more such facilities are required to prevent deaths and disabilities of people due to various health conditions that include blockage of veins and arteries.

This emerged at the two-day 6th Annual Scientific Conference of Interventional Radiology Society of Pakistan (RSP) in which health professionals and medical experts expressed their concerns over small number of health facilities out of total 1,276 secondary and tertiary-care facilities in Pakistan offering the high-tech treatment.

Interventional radiology is an advanced branch of radiology in which X-rays, CT scan, MRI and other high-tech imaging technologies are used to navigate small instruments, like catheters and needles, through blood vessels and organs to perform interventional medical procedures to treat diseases.

“There are hardly 60 to 70 interventional radiologists working throughout Pakistan, most of who are serving at private health facilities in the country,” an interventional radiologist and president-elect of Interventional Radiology Society of Pakistan Dr Kashif Shazli told the conference.

“There is a need to establish more Interventional Radiology Centres at public health facilities to prevent deaths and disability of people due to various health conditions due to blockage of veins and arteries. There is one interventional radiologist for 3.6 million people in Pakistan,” he added.

“India has many more interventional radiologists as compared to Pakistan while in the United States where there is one IR specialist for every 100,000 people. Pakistan is far behind the world in this area,” he added.

Vice Chancellor of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Karachi Prof Saeed Qurasihy said interventional radiology was in early phase in Pakistan and most of the institutions were not offering the advanced procedures, but added that efforts of the RSP were commendable for training of young specialists to serve more people in the country.

He advised the Interventional Radiology Society of Pakistan to approach the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) to offer fellowship in this sub-specialty of radiology.

Eminent gastroenterologist Prof Saad Khalid Niaz said interventional radiologists could help gastroenterologists in complicated procedures, especially in case of haemorrhage or internal bleeding where they use interventional radiology techniques to stop the bleeding.

“Procedures should be cost effective in the context of Pakistan and interventional radiologists offer several procedures which are not only safe, but are also cost effective,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2022