By Sally Boswellsally.boswell@theparisnews.com

Paris Regional Medical Center offers a full-slate of health-care services to the people of the Red River Valley, including a cutting edge field that is helping patients get treatment faster, and recover faster, than ever before.

“Interventional radiol-ogy is not a new thing,” said Dr. Srikanth Medarametla, MD, a board certified interven-tional radiologist at Paris Regional. “It’s just not well know yet.”

Intervent-ional radiol-ogy refers to a range of techniques which rely on the use of radiologi-cal image guidance, such as X-ray f luoroscopy, ultrasound, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, to precisely target therapy, according to the British Society of Interventional Radiology website. Most IR treatments are mini-mally invasive alterna-tives to open and laparo-scopic surgery.

IR uses fine cathe-ter tubes and wires to

navigate around the body, guid-ed by imag-es obtained through state of the ar t imaging technology.

“What Dr. Medarametla brings to us is the training and the technology that heretofore has not existed in Paris,” said Steve Hyde, Paris Regional’s CEO. “In health care, we are always trying to make is easier and easier on the patients. Instead of a big operative procedure that might take a long time, his skill set allows him to use this new technology to get similar outcomes with less invasive work, often in an outpatient set-ting, as opposed to having to stay in the hospital. It translates into less risk, with smaller incisions and less anesthesia, resulting in faster recovery.”

IR deals with a large variety of ailments, from cancer treatments, open-ing and repairing arter-ies and veins not located in the heart or the brain, embolizations of fibroids

in the uterus, treatment of non-healing wounds in the extremities, locating and removing or medicat-ing blood clots anywhere in the body, including the lungs and pain manage-ment through pinpoint application of medications within the body, all with-out surgical incisions as in previous years.

“With these techniques we can place catheters to direct cancer medica-tions directly to the treat-ment site rather than inject them into the blood stream and damaginge the veins and arteries with that medication,” Medarametla said. “IR is like shooting with a sniper rifle rather than a shotgun. The medication goes directly where it is needed.”

A c c or d i n g t o Medarametla, medica-tions can be administered in the radial artery in the arm, rather than in an artery in the chest or the groin, which requires an incision. The catheters can reach any part of the body from that artery, and by bypassing the incision, patients can get up and walk around immediately

rather than having to lie in bed for hours after the procedure.

“We have been treating enlarged prostates with catheters for about two

years now,” Medarametla said. “It has proven to be a much sought after way of treating the condition. People are coming to us from around the world to

received this treatment. Our procedure blocks the artery to the prostate gland, which shrinks the

VALLEY VISIONS: HEALTH CARE10 SUNDAYAPRIL 14, 2019

See RADIOLOGY, pg. 11

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Submitted Photo

Dr. Srikanth Medarametla, an interventional radiologist at Paris Regional Medical Center, uses state-of-the-art imaging equipment to locate and treat a variety of conditions with minimally invasive catheters and wires, rather than traditional open surgical or laparoscopic treatment with pinpoint methods, resulting in faster treatments and faster recoveries.

Medical treatments with pinpoint accuracyInterventional radiology uses imaging to guide surgeons to their goal

MEDARAMETLA