Radiology, Vol 196, 51-54, Copyright © 1995 by Radiological Society of North America
Participation by radiologists and other specialists in percutaneous vascular and nonvascular interventions: findings from a seven-state database
DC Levin, SJ Flanders, CM Spettell, J Bonn and RM Steiner
Department of Radiology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
PURPOSE: To determine the relative degree of participation by radiologists
and other specialists in percutaneous interventional procedures. MATERIALS
AND METHODS: By using 1992 Medicare Part B claims data that covered seven
states, the specialty of the physician provider was determined for all
services performed within various percutaneous vascular and nonvascular
interventional procedure codes. RESULTS: Radiologists' performance of
interventional procedures in descending percentage of participation was as
follows: renal cyst aspiration (92.7%), biliary decompression (90.5%),
abdominal or retroperitoneal mass biopsy (87.7%), lung or mediastinal
biopsy (84.2%), noncardiac angioplasty (76.8%), pancreatic biopsy (75.2%),
upper urinary tract decompression (73.7%), liver biopsy (43.7%), renal
biopsy (38.4%), certain types of abscess drainages (38.2%), and
thoracentesis with tube insertion (29.4%). They had only small roles in
thoracentesis for aspiration (4.7%) and tube thoracostomy (1.7%).
CONCLUSION: Despite controversy between radiologists and other specialists
over who should perform percutaneous interventions, radiologists have
maintained strong predominance in many types of these procedures. In
others, they have a shared, but still major, role.
