By Michael Bassett
One area of radiology that has some growth potential is on the interventional side, involves healthy patients, and is referred to as “cosmetic radiology.”
The term was coined by Ziv Haskal, MD, professor of radiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, who has led a number of sessions on the subject at meetings of the Society of Interventional Radiology.
According to Haskal, more and more interventional radiologists are offering cosmetic procedures to their arsenal of services—procedures such as injections of botulinum toxin (Botox), dermal fillers, treatments for hyperhidrosis, and even mini facelifts. They all involve tools and anatomy that interventional radiologists are intimately familiar with.
“We’re already offering vein interventions in patients, which means we’re doing varicose vein interventions and sclerotherapy for unsightly reticular veins,” he said. “So it’s a very tiny step to move into these kinds of cosmetic interventions for many of the same people who are already seeing us for [vein interventions].
Getting the training to do these kinds of procedures isn’t complicated, said Haskal, but if an interventional radiologist is interested in adding those services, it certainly helps to have an established vein practice.
“I think the current state of this is that there are relatively few practices that have it as a sole freestanding practice,” Haskal said. “But it certainly plays an adjunct or additional role in many practices. I don’t think we have a real sense of the numbers of how widespread it is other than the fact that cosmetic interventional radiology workshops remain quite popular at the annual meeting.”
