What is an embolisation?

Question

Is it an operation or is it a procedure?

Answer 1

Embolization refers to something inappropriately travelling through the bloodstream from one location to another, and rarely has any positive outcome when occurring spontaneously.

If a clot forms in one area and a portion breaks off and travels through the blood, it will likely travel up the venous system and end up being trapped in the lungs (pulmonary embolism), where if it is small enough it can be handled by the body. If larger, though, it can cause tissue death in the lungs and be immediately life-threatening.

If something embolizes in the arterial system, it will travel until the vessels get to small to allow passage, then stop at that point. If it makes a perfect seal there, blood will not pass around it and the region distal to that point will become starved for oxygen and could die. This situation is also emergent and immediately life-threatening.

Other things can embolize as well - pieces of fat, gases, and foreign objects.

Finally, there are experimental procedures in trials where embolization is intentional -- in uterine fibroids, for example, plastic beads are being injected via catheter to stop blood flow to the abnormal tissues with the goal of killing it off completely without affecting surrounding tissues. Similar efforts could have benefits in the destruction of cancerous tumors.

Answer 2

In medicine, an embolism occurs when an object (the embolus, plural emboli) migrates from one part of the body (through circulation) and cause(s) a blockage (occlusion) of a blood vessel in another part of the body.

This can be contrasted with a "thrombus" which is the formation of a clot within a blood vessel, rather than being carried from somewhere else.

Blood clots form the most common embolic material by far: other possible embolic materials include fat globules (a fat embolism), air bubbles (an air embolism), talc embolism (often following drug abuse), septic emboli (containing pus and bacteria), or amniotic fluid.

Emboli often have more serious consequences when they occur in the so-called "end-circulation": areas of the body that have no redundant blood supply, such as the brain, heart, and lungs.

Assuming a normal circulation, a thrombus or other embolus formed in a systemic vein will always impact in the lungs, after passing through the right side of the heart. This forms a pulmonary embolism that can be a complication of deep-vein thrombosis. Note that, contrary to popular belief, the most common site of origin of pulmonary emboli are the femoral veins, not the deep veins of the calf. Deep veins of the calf are the most common site of thrombi, not emboli origin.

Some congenital abnormalities of the circulation, especially septal defects (holes in the cardiac septum), allow embolus from a systemic vein to cross into the arterial system and land anywhere in the body. The most common such abnormality is patent foramen ovale, occurring in about 25 % of the adult population, but here the defect functions as a valve which is normally closed, because pressure is slightly higher in the left side of the heart. In unfortunate circumstances, e.g. if patient is coughing just when an embolus is passing, passage to the arterial system may occur.

Emboli starting in the heart (from a thrombus in the left atrium secondary to atrial fibrillation or septic emboli from endocarditis) can cause emboli in any part of the body.

An embolus landing in the brain from either the heart or a carotid artery will likely cause an ischemic stroke.

Embolism of cardiac origin is also frequently encountered in clinical practice. Thrombus formation within the atrium in valvular disease occurs mainly in patients with mitral valve disease, and specially in those with mitral valve stenosis with atrial fibrillation (AF). In the absence of AF, pure mitral regurgitation has low incidence of thromboembolism. Absolute risk of emboli in idiopathic AF depends on other risk factors such as increasing age, hypertension, diabetes, recent heart failure, or previous stroke. Thrombus formation can also take place within the ventricles, and it occurs in approximately 30% of anterior wall myocardia infarctions, compared to only 5% of inferior ones. Other risk factors include poor ejection fraction (<35%), size of infarct, as well as presence of AF. In the first three months after infarction, left ventricle aneurysms have 10% risk of embolization. Patients with prosthetic valves also carry a significant increase in risk of thromboembolism. Risk varies on the valve type (biopresthetic or mechanical), the positon (mitral or aortic), and presence of other factors such as AF, left ventricular dysfunction, previous emboli, etc.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embolism"

Answer 3

Its both. Patient is under a general anesthetic and a meterial is injected in an artery to block it so that bleeding stops.

Answer 4

operation. It's when they try to stop you from ahem shi*ing out your insides.