EC Paediatrics

Tumours originating from the lower thoracic, lumbosacral spine and pelvis are hard to manage due primarily to the multiplicities of their arterial supply. Moreover, lesions in the sacrum and pelvic cavity are not easily accessible and their feeding arteries and accompanying nerve fibres are tightly bunched. Surgical excision of tumour in such a tight space may lead to inevitable intra operative blood loss.

One avenue of preventing excessive blood loss is the use of preoperative selective arterial embolisation PAEm. It is a semi-invasive intravascular technique that centres on manoeuvring the tip a radio-opaque catheter into the origin of an artery through a femoral artery puncture. The fact it has been routinely used over the past forty years speaks of its reliability. And in keeping with current development of hi-tech interventional radiology equipment, finer angiography catheters and sophisticated heparin-coated guide wires, PAEm is regarded a safe procedure in the hands of an experienced intravascular interventionist.