Related Experiment Videos
Participation by radiologists and other specialists in percutaneous vascular and nonvascular interventions: findings
D C Levin1, S J Flanders, C M Spettell
1Department of Radiology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
Purpose:
To determine the relative degree of participation by radiologists and other specialists in percutaneous interventional procedures.
Materials And Methods:
By using 1992 Medicare Part B claims data that covered seven states, the specialty of the physician provider was determined for all services performed within various percutaneous vascular and nonvascular interventional procedure codes.
Results:
Radiologists' performance of interventional procedures in descending percentage of participation was as follows: renal cyst aspiration (92.7%), biliary decompression (90.5%), abdominal or retroperitoneal mass biopsy (87.7%), lung or mediastinal biopsy (84.2%), noncardiac angioplasty (76.8%), pancreatic biopsy (75.2%), upper urinary tract decompression (73.7%), liver biopsy (43.7%), renal biopsy (38.4%), certain types of abscess drainages (38.2%), and thoracentesis with tube insertion (29.4%). They had only small roles in thoracentesis for aspiration (4.7%) and tube thoracostomy (1.7%).
Conclusion:
Despite controversy between radiologists and other specialists over who should perform percutaneous interventions, radiologists have maintained strong predominance in many types of these procedures. In others, they have a shared, but still major, role.