Angioembolization for solid organ injury: A brief review

•Angioembolization improves success rate of non-operative management.•Patient selection is critical to optimizing outcomes.•Continuous and rapid Interventional Radiology (IR) support is a requirement for efficient care.•High grade injuries are more likely to fail and have complications.

IntroductionNon-operative management is the standard of care for blunt solid organ injuries in stable patients. Angioembolization is an important technique that improves success rates of non-operative management. We aimed to provide a brief review of the indications, effectiveness and complications associated with angioembolization for solid organ injuries.MethodsWe conducted a literature search of the PubMed database using the terms “trauma”, “angioembolization”, and “solid organ embolization” limited to studies published in the English language. Abstracts and full text were manually reviewed to identify suitable articles.ResultsThe current brief review is based on content from the more recently published articles related to angioembolization for solid organ injuries after trauma.DiscussionAngioembolization is appropriate for hemodynamically stable patients with contrast extravasation on CT scan or high-grade injury to a solid organ. Non-operative management success rates have improved with the adoption of angioembolization. The complications associated with angioembolization are acceptable in the context of avoiding a laparotomy, and are often related to the severity of the injury.ConclusionAngioembolization is a natural extension of the move towards non-operative management for solid organ injuries. Randomized controlled trials are required to fully characterize the indications and efficacy of its use.