The field of interventional radiology is constantly undergoing change, and its procedures evolve over time. There is currently tremendous pressure on our specialty, as cardiology and vascular surgery app- priate existing vascular interventions. We need to be looking constantly for new procedures that will replace this loss. In the 1980s, the int- duction of vascular access provided new procedures that included the placement of temporary venous catheters, ports, tunneled catheters, and dialysis maintenance. As a result of vascular access the number of procedures performed in some interventional labs doubled. The same revolution is occurring again with the advent of image-guided spine intervention. Five percent of the American population at any one time has back pain. This huge patient population is seeking help for this disabling and persistent problem. Image-Guided Spine Interventions describes the varied and numerous procedures that are available to the image-guided interventionist, who may provide these therapies for the spine. This book embraces clinical evaluation, pharmacological requirements, procedural recommen- tions, and a spectrum of procedures that will be of interest to the image-guided spine interventionist. It covers a broad range of ma- rial that is presented by experts in each field, including discography, intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET), percutaneous discectomy, vertebroplasty and ballon kyphoplasty, epidural steroid injections, - lective nerve root blocks and autonomic nerve blockade, diagnostic epidurography and therapeutic epidurolysis, sacroiliac and facet joint injections, implanted drug delivery systems, and epidural blood and fibrin patches for CSF leaks.
