Society of Interventional Radiology urges trauma centers to integrate IRs into hemorrhage care
The Society of Interventional Radiology and American College of Surgeons have issued joint guidance urging trauma centers to integrate IRs into multidisciplinary care teams to accelerate treatment for life-threatening bleeding.
The position statement, “Rapid Endovascular Hemorrhage Control in Trauma,” outlines strategies for improving access to angioembolization through early consultation, shared treatment decisions and coordinated activation of clinical teams. It also clarifies the intent of ACS Standard 4.15, which requires Level 1 and 2 trauma centers to maintain the personnel and facilities necessary to begin an interventional radiology procedure for hemorrhage control within 60 minutes when a patient's condition requires rapid intervention.
To help trauma programs meet that standard, the organizations define who can initiate consultation and who has the authority to activate the response. These care pathways also lay out how to mobilize teams across interventional radiology, anesthesia, transport, nursing and technologist services.
The guidance also calls for early IR involvement in determining the most appropriate approach to hemorrhage control, with priority given to patients most likely to benefit from rapid embolization, such as those who are hemodynamically unstable or require transfusion. For patients who require both surgery and endovascular treatment, trauma centers should develop protocols that allow the two workflows to proceed in parallel, when appropriate, rather than sequentially delaying definitive care.
“For a patient in hemorrhagic shock, every step between recognizing the bleeding and achieving definitive control matters,” Luke R. Wilkins, MD, the statement’s lead author and an interventional radiologist at the University of Virginia Health System, said in a news release on the new guidance. “Trauma centers need processes that bring trauma surgeons and interventional radiologists together early, mobilize the full team in parallel and get the right patient to treatment without avoidable delay.”
Uncontrolled hemorrhage remains a leading cause of trauma-related death.
The full guidelines are available here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.