Posted: 2007-08-16

Endovascular Therapy Center (CTE, Centro de Terapia Endovascular)

Introduction

This is a vascular intervention service which has the high technology, quality and experience for offering patients safe, effective and comfortable care. It specializes in providing non-surgical procedures for treatment of various types of illness. Our team works with your attending physician, respecting all of his or her decisions and observations.

Information

Endovascular therapy is a series of techniques that are supported by X-Rays. It permits navigation of various microinstruments within blood vessels for diagnosis or treatment. Its results are similar or superior to those of surgical therapies.

The majority of endovascular procedures are conducted using very thin tubes (called catheters) that are introduced into arteries and veins via needle punctures. With no surgical incision, the patient may often return to normal activities a few hours after the procedure. 

Procedures are done with angiographic techniques (aided by X-Rays) using microcatheters of diameters smaller than 2 millimeters. This allows most therapies to be conducted without general anesthesia, to leave no scars and to require a recovery period of between 12 and 24 hours.

The center is located within the surgical area, in order that procedures may be carried out through completely sterile techniques (in a white area).

Today endovascular techniques are not limited to treatment of heart disease; they have extended to exploration of practically every organ and are useful for many specialties. Also, being within the operating room area, the unit is able to perform surgery while benefiting from a highly advanced imaging system.

The center is supported by an intensive care unit with all the resources, and the most advanced technology, for managing any type of complication.

Special care is given to: arteriosclerosis in any part of the body, control of hemorrhages, tumor destruction, prevention of vascular rupture and aneurysms, repermeabilization of venous access for hemodialysis and pacemaker placement.

By area, endovascular techniques are applied in:

Cardiology

• Coronary angiography and angioplasty.
• Hemodynamic studies.
• Study of congenital malformations.
• Treatment of valve diseases.
• Defibrillation and pacemaker installation.

Surgery

• Endovascular management of arterial and venous mesenteric thrombosis.
• Treatment of chronic mesenteric ischemia caused by arteriosclerosis.
• Control of gastrointestinal bleeding.

Gyneco-obstetrics

• Embolization of uterine artery for treatment of myomatosis.
• Control of obstetric (postpartum) hemorrhage.
• Internal medicine.
• Treatment of foot complications in diabetics (repermeabilization of arteries using angioplasty), in order to avoid the need for amputation.
• Nephrology.
• Repermeabilization of venous access for hemodialysis (arteriovenous fistulas).

Pulmonology

• Bronchial embolization to treat massive hemoptysis.
• Embolization of Pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas.
• Acute treatment of pulmonary thromboembolism.
• Vena cava filter placement to prevent pulmonary embolism.

Neurology

• Diagnostic cerebral panangiography.
• Embolization of arterial cerebral aneurysms.
• Embolization of arteriovenous malformations (AVM). 
• Carotid angioplasty.

Oncology

• Chemoembolization of hepatic metastases.
• Endovascular decompression for treatment of vena cava syndrome.
• Preoperative embolization of highly vascularized tumors (in kidney cancer, for example).

Trauma

• Control of post-traumatic pelvic hemorrhage.
• Vascular.
• Endovascular treatment of aneurysms, and thoracic and abdominal aortic dissections.

Equipment

The Endovascular Therapy Center has a latest-generation digital angiography unit (AXIOM Artis / Diemens) with the capacity to generate images of high-quality and resolution, in order to carry out diagnostic and therapeutic vascular procedures.

Hours
24 hours a day, 365 days a year
Telephone
38.48.40.00 Ext. 2163