Interventional radiology in the treatment of urological vascular complications

Urological vascular complications (UVC) are largely secondary to percutaneous procedures that are nowadays extensevely used by the urologists and the nephrologists. The major frequency of UVC is observed after the renal biopsy, in a percentage varying from 7 to 17% in different series; UVC are less frequent after a nephrostomic procedure (near 1-3%). UVC consist of artero-venous fistulas (AVF) and pseudoaneurysms (PA), that generally cause haemorrhage, particularly macroscopic hematuria. In the vast majority of cases hematuria resolves spontaneously or with conservative therapy but, in the 4 to 9% of patients persists and requires an adequate therapy, often in emergency. Interventional radiology permits an effective and timely treatment of the lesions, using the techniques of transcatheter embolization that are greatly improved in the last 20 years and that present rate of technical success greater than 80%. Moreover radiological embolization shows a low incidence of complications and lower hospitalization cost with respect to surgical treatment. Herein we describe the different techniques of embolization, the indications and the results as appears from the literature and the personal experience. The latter is based on a series of 31 procedures performed in 26 patients, with a rate of technical and clinical success of 93.5%.