Medical College of Wisconsin Vascular & Interventional Radiology Division

Our practice has many unique qualities, not the least of which is its relationship with the Division of Vascular Surgery. This relationship allows for the collegial combined medical and procedural care of patients with vascular disease. We have two hybrid operating rooms that allow us to perform combined vascular surgery/interventional radiology procedures such as endovascular aortic aneurysm repair in an operating room setting, while maintaining high quality imaging.

We perform all other diagnostic and therapeutic IR procedures except for cardiac catheterizations and neuro-interventions. Examples of such IR procedures include visceral and renal angiography as well as lower extremity revascularization procedures including thrombolysis, angioplasty and stenting. We also perform procedures such as inferior vena cava filter placement and retrieval, Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPS), musculoskeletal interventions and uterine fibroid embolization. We are one of the few sites in the nation performing imaging guided focused ultrasound procedures, which is currently offered for palliation of painful bone metastases and uterine fibroids.

We have developed a very active interventional oncology service providing primary patient-centered evaluation and image-guided therapies including chemoembolization, TheraSphere and SIR-Sphere radioembolizations, Drug Eluting Bead Transarterial Chemoembolization (DEB-TACE), radiofrequency and microwave ablation and cryoablation procedures.

Our division is fully integrated with the other subspecialties within the Department of Radiology such as digital imaging, chest and GI radiology. We have an active nonvascular service which performs all percutaneous liver procedures including transhepatic cholangiography, biliary drainage, biliary/ductal dilatation/stenting, and percutaneous genitourinary procedures.

At the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Division of Vascular & Interventional Radiology is active in clinical research trials with enrollment in several clinical trials. We have a dedicated research coordinator that helps recruit for and run these trials. Because research is so critical to the advancement of our specialty, one of our ten faculty member spends 50% of her time on research endeavors.