Participation by radiologists and other specialists in percutaneous vascular and nonvascular interventions: findings from a seven-state database.

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.