Acute Hemorrhage and Trauma

Interventional radiology exists to provide treatment to patients with minimal invasiveness. Nowhere is that imperative clearer than in the techniques employed for the treatment of hemorrhage. Patients who would once have undergone an open laparotomy for bleeding in the abdomen can now be treated in the angiosuite, leaving in stable condition with a small bandage rather than a massive suture line. With the advent of radial artery access, procedure-related morbidity in the treatment of hemorrhage has never been lower. In this chapter, common techniques used for the treatment of hemorrhage in the thorax, abdomen, and pelvis are discussed. A common set of tools can be used for almost all sites of hemorrhage when approached from the left radial artery, and a toolset for each example case is included in each section. These standard approaches may always be modified and updated as needed.