Certain tumors of the brain and its coverings can bleed heavily during surgery. This can make the neurosurgeon's task very difficult and sometimes impossible. This difficulty can be eased by embolization (blocking)of the blood vessels feeding these tumors before surgery begins. An embolization is a procedure in which a catheter is placed into the patient's groin and carefully navigated into the blood vessels supplying the tumor under x-ray guidance. An angiogram is obtained by injecting x-ray dye into the blood vessel to examine the blood supply of the tumor and verify that it is safe to eliminate that vessel. Material is then injected through the catheter to block the blood vessel under x-ray guidance. Occasionally, malignant tumors require embolization with stronger agents, such as alcohol or chemotherapy drugs. Franklin Moser, MD, Chief of Interventional Neuroradiology, heads our team of imaging physicians, nurses and technologists who specialize in this procedure.
