Basic interventional procedures: Practice essentials

There has been an increasing demand in image-guided minimally invasive procedures and these have become an integral part of present-day clinical practice. Basic interventional radiology (IR) procedures have greatly reduced the need for invasive procedures for sampling as well as treating conditions like abscess and fluid collections. Owing to their minimally invasive nature, most of these procedures may be performed on the outpatient patients as daycare procedures. Some of these procedures in critically ill patients may be lifesaving. Basic interventional radiology (IR) procedures consist of image-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology and biopsy, tru-cut (core) biopsy, needle aspiration/drainage and percutaneous catheter drainage. This review aims to provide practice requisites for basic IR procedures.