Introduction

Article Outline

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Endovascular embolization has witnessed a remarkable surge in the past two decades driven primarily by improvement in microcatheter technology, coil design, and new embolic materials and breakthroughs in digital imaging.

With growing experience came improved results, and expanded applications. Embolization therapy has become a major arm of modern interventional therapy. Its applications have become fundamental cores in the multimodality treatment paradigms in trauma, oncology, and endovascular therapy of vascular malformations and aneurysms. A total transformation of the approach of uterine fibroids is ongoing and in the future this promises to be one of the most frequently performed embolizations. Embolization therapy has also become an integral facet of the modern oncology center, offering solid organ chemoembolization, preoperative devascularization, hepatic growth stimulation before resection, and direct gene therapy delivery.

In the meantime, every interventional radiologist has to master the basics of emergency bleeding embolization. We all face complex bleeding challenges in the middle of the night and would like to learn more on practical issues, materials and results available, and tips and tricks.

The GEST meeting (Global Embolization Symposium and Technologies) was the first meeting of this kind in the field of embolization where participants and leaders in this field could discuss, interact, and share their experience. The meeting was highly practical and comprehensive. Because of these unique characteristics, Dr. Razavi kindly proposed to dedicate a specific volume of this journal to some selected lectures of the GEST 2007 meeting.

This volume contains 10 papers on the materials including gelfoam, particles, drug-eluting beads, and glue as well as practical aspects of embolization in the field of peripheral and pulmonary arteriovenous malformations, complex renal artery aneurysms, and bronchial artery embolization.

We are confident that this volume will be of high practical value for the readers in line with the goals of Techniques in Vascular and Interventional Radiology.