SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY PROCEDURE SAVES A 62-YEAR-OLD MAN FROM PARALYSIS

Successful Interventional Radiology Procedure Saves a 62-Year-Old Man from Paralysis

The medical team of the Radiology Department at Almoosa Specialist Hospital has succeeded in saving the life of a 62-year-old man, where he was suffering a severe pain in the left side of the abdomen as a result of purulent collection next to the spine at the spinal canal.

Dr. Yasser Jaber, Consultant Interventional Radiology says that the patient was admitted to the hospital, where he was suffering severe pain in his left side, and the doctors were suspected that there was a problem in his left kidney, immediately, we performed ultrasound on the kidney, which showed that the kidney was intact, then we performed a CT scan that confirmed that there was an abscess (purulent collection) of the muscle behind the left kidney.

Dr. Yasser added that the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that performed on the patient showed that the abscess extends to the disc between the twelfth thoracic vertebra (T12) and the first lumbar vertebra within the spinal canal, which has an effect on the spinal cord so this  collection must be withdrawn immediately, to prevent any complications in the patient that may result in lower half paralysis.

And then a meeting of (surgery, neurology, radiology, neurosurgery) departments has been held to study the data of MRI, the medical team’s decision was to discharge the abscess through the interventional radiology as soon as possible, due to the difficulty of the surgical intervention in such cases.

Dr. Yasser and the accompanying team took a sample (biopsy) from this purulent collection, and sent it to the laboratory through a CT scan, the result of the test was that the patient had tuberculosis (TB), and then the team inserted a catheter to drain the purulent collection with a local anesthetic, a large amount of the pus was removed, which led to patient’s improvement in the same day, and the team to follow up the patient’s condition until the pus was completely eliminated, which contributed to the improvement of the patient condition dramatically and he left the hospital without suffering any pain and he is currently following up with the TB specialist.

It is worth mentioning that the interventional radiology is characterized by  proceeding  the surgical procedure under local anesthesia and less intervention, where there is no surgical incision, which speeds the patient recovery and discharges early and avoids complications of general anesthesia