Jipmer clocks 300 procedures in first year of using new state-of-the-art equipment

Jipmer in Puducherry offers advanced DSA equipment for precise diagnosis and treatment of neurovascular and peripheral vascular disorders.

Jipmer has completed more than 300 peripheral vascular and neurovascular procedures, both diagnostic and therapeutic, in the first year of commissioning a state-of-the-art high-end biplane digital subtraction angiography (DSA).

The ₹11 crore DSA equipment for interventional radiology and neurovascular interventions, was installed in the super-specialty block (SSB) annexe building of the Jipmer hospital on April 1, 2023.

The equipment, the first of its kind in Puducherry, is capable of high-resolution imaging of blood vessels, thereby allowing precise diagnosis of their abnormalities. It is equipped with several advanced features and software programs, such as 3D rotational angiography, moving-table angiography, flow assessment, Dyna-CT acquisition, etc., among other features, Jipmer said.

It is particularly useful for diagnosis of various diseases affecting the blood vessels. In addition, it allows for treatment of several disorders using a pin-hole approach. The procedure involves inserting a catheter into a blood vessel (usually in the upper thigh) through a small hole and navigating blood vessels at a remote locations in the body, including the blood vessels of the brain, when the treatment is to be administered.

According to the Department of Radiodiagnosis, DSA-guided intervention becomes extremely useful for treatment of abnormalities in blood vessels, such as to relieve their narrowing (stenosis or blocks), to treat an area of weakness or bulging in the vessel wall (aneurysms), to close any abnormal connections between blood vessels (arterio-venous malformations), and to stop bleeding from a damaged blood vessel (such as due to trauma).

The DSA is also used to block the blood supply to certain tumours before surgery; this helps to reduce the size of the tumour, rendering some tumours that were otherwise incurable amenable to surgical resection.

The neurovascular problems that have been treated at Jipmer using this equipment have included stenting for narrowed carotid (neck) arteries, treatment of carotid-cavernous fistulas, thrombectomy for patients of stroke, treatment of brain aneurysms with coils/flow-diversion, arteriovenous malformations using liquid embolic agents, vertebral and spinal cord problems arising from diseases involving the blood vessels supplying to these structures.