Pan Arab Interventional Radiology Society launched at Arab Health to boost minimally invasive specialty care

An emerging field of medicine, interventional radiology enables specialist physicians to use x-rays and other imaging techniques to guide catheters and other miniscule instruments through blood vessels, arteries and other pathways of the body to the site of a disorder, treating the body without and often more effectively than conventional surgery.

Apart from being minimally invasive, interventional radiology procedures are also less costly for hospitals and less traumatic for patients as they involve smaller incisions, less pain and shorter hospital stays.

Lack of awareness about this specialist field, the shortage of qualified interventional radiologists internationally, and the lack of a regulatory framework in the region are keeping the region from experiencing the full benefits of this revolutionary stream of medicine, PAIRS President Dr. Aghiad Al-Kutoubi said at the first Interventional Radiology Conference at Arab Health.

"With the establishment of PAIRS, we hope to create a forum for exchange of expertise among practitioners in the region and boost use of interventional radiology across the Gulf, the Levant, the Middle East and North Africa,"

Dr. Al-Kutoubi, Chairman of the Dept. of Diagnostic Radiology at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre and Honorary Consultant Radiologist at St. Mary's Hospital in London.

PAIRS, he added, would undertake training programs and continuing education and accreditation modules to encourage best practice, and work towards creating a regulatory framework for interventional radiology in the region.

"Although the practice of interventional radiology is quite well established in some parts of the Middle East, on the whole it and its practitioners are not as recognized as they should be," Dr. Al-Kutoubi said. Given the high prevalence of diabetes and smoking in the region, he added, interventional radiology could be particularly effective in treating vascular disease.

Interventional radiology has been used to treat uterine fibroids, arterial disease, osteoporosis, liver cancer, stroke, clots and in embolizing bleeding blood vessels.

Participation in PAIRS is open to all interested healthcare professionals around the region. The first Interventional Radiology Conference also featured presentations by international IR and regional specialists.