Tired of Being Told Surgery Is Your Only Option? Meet Dr Ravindran, Interventional Radiologist in Chennai

I remember a patient who came to see me two years ago.

She was 44. A schoolteacher. She had uterine fibroids, causing heavy bleeding so severe that she was missing work two days every month. Her gynaecologist had recommended a hysterectomy. Her husband had taken time off to accompany her to the pre-surgery consultation.

She sat across from me and said, "Doctor, I just want to keep my uterus. Is that possible?"

I told her yes. We did UFE the following week. She was back in her classroom ten days later. Her uterus is intact. Her fibroids have shrunk significantly. She sends me a message every few months, always some version of "thank you for not taking the easy answer."

That conversation is why I do this work.

My name is Dr Ravindran. I am an Endovascular and Interventional Radiologist based in Chennai. And after more than a decade in this speciality, the thing that still stays with me is how many patients arrive in my clinic having been told, sometimes for years, that surgery was their only choice.

It usually isn't.

What is an interventional radiologist? 

An interventional radiologist treats disease from inside the body using live imaging guidance, such as X-ray, ultrasound, or CT, through a skin puncture no larger than a pencil tip. No large incisions. No general anaesthesia in most cases. Same-day discharge for many procedures. The results are comparable to surgery. The recovery is dramatically shorter.

How I Ended Up Doing This Work

I didn't plan to become an interventional radiologist.

Like most doctors, I trained broadly. I rotated through surgery, medicine, and obstetrics. I was good with my hands and comfortable with imaging. But it was during my radiology training that something clicked.

I watched a senior IR specialist perform a uterine fibroid embolization on a woman who had been told she needed a hysterectomy. The procedure took 45 minutes. She went home the next morning. Her fibroids shrank over the following months. She later had a pregnancy she had been told would never happen.

That was the moment I understood what this speciality could do.

I pursued fellowship training in interventional and endovascular radiology. I spent time learning under specialists in India and abroad. I studied the evidence UFE, EVLA, PAE, TACE, and GAE. Procedure after procedure with strong clinical data behind it.

And then I came back to Chennai. Because Chennai needed this.

What I See Every Week in My Clinic

Let me tell you about the kinds of patients I see regularly. Not to make a point, but because their stories are probably familiar to someone reading this.

The woman with fibroids was told hysterectomy was inevitable.  She's in her late thirties or early forties. She has one or two children, maybe more, than she was hoping for. The fibroids are causing heavy periods, pelvic pressure, and sometimes anaemia. Her gynaecologist is not wrong; a hysterectomy would fix it. But so would UFE. And UFE doesn't remove her uterus.

The man with an enlarged prostate who dreads the side effects of surgery.  He's in his fifties or sixties. He wakes up three times a night. He plans his day around bathroom access. His urologist has recommended TURP. He's read about retrograde ejaculation, which affects up to 90% of men after that procedure, and he's quietly terrified. Nobody has mentioned PAE.

The woman with varicose veins has been wearing compression stockings for three years.  She's managing. Just about. But her legs ache in the evening. There's some skin discolouration near her ankle that wasn't there last year. Her GP said to keep using the stockings. Nobody offered her EVLA a 45-minute laser procedure that would close the faulty veins and resolve the symptoms.

The man with a varicocele whose semen analysis keeps coming back abnormal.  He and his partner have been trying to conceive for two years. He's been told surgery is the way to fix it. He's nervous about general anaesthesia. Nobody mentioned that embolization local anaesthesia, same-day discharge, and back to work in two days achieves the same outcome.

The family is sitting with an "inoperable" liver cancer diagnosis.  The surgeon has said the tumour can't be removed. The family has heard the word inoperable and assumed it means untreatable. It doesn't. TACE delivering chemotherapy directly into the tumour's blood supply through a catheter is the international standard of care for intermediate-stage liver cancer. It is performed by interventional radiologists. Not oncologists. Not surgeons.

I see all of these patients. Every week.

Pro Tip: If you have been given a surgical recommendation and something feels off, if your instinct says there must be another way, trust that instinct enough to book one more consultation. With a different type of specialist. It costs one appointment. It could change everything.

Key Takeaway: The patients who benefit most from IR are not rare cases. They are common conditions seen in every Chennai clinic, treated through the wrong pathway because the right specialist was never mentioned.

The Procedures I Perform And What They Actually Involve

I want to demystify what I do. Because "interventional radiology" sounds complicated. The procedures, when explained plainly, are not.

UFE:- Uterine Fibroid Embolization A thin catheter enters through a 2mm puncture at the wrist or groin. Under live X-ray guidance, I navigate to the uterine arteries supplying the fibroids. Tiny particles are released to block blood flow. Fibroids shrink over three to six months. The uterus is preserved. The patient goes home the next morning.

Success rate: 85–90%. Recovery: one to two weeks.

EVLA:- Endovenous Laser Ablation for Varicose Veins. A laser fibre enters through a needle puncture. Local anaesthesia is injected around the faulty vein. As the fibre is withdrawn, laser energy seals the vein from inside. Blood flow redirects to healthy veins immediately. The patient walks out the same day.

Success rate: 95%+ at one year. Recovery: three to five days.

PAE:- Prostate Artery Embolization Same catheter-based approach. I locate the arteries feeding the enlarged prostate and reduce blood flow to the overgrown tissue. The prostate shrinks. Urinary symptoms improve. No surgical incision. No retrograde ejaculation. Same-day discharge.

Symptom improvement in 80%+ of patients. Recovery: three to five days.

Varicocele Embolization:- The abnormal vein is accessed through a catheter. Coils or a sclerosant agent block the refluxing blood flow. Both sides can be treated in one session, something surgery cannot do without two separate incisions. Local anaesthesia. Back to work in one to two days.

GAE:- Genicular Artery Embolization for Knee Pain. For patients with moderate knee osteoarthritis who have tried injections without lasting relief and aren't ready for replacement, GAE targets the abnormal blood vessels driving inflammation in the joint lining. Pain improves over two to four weeks as inflammation reduces. No joint is touched. No structure is altered.

TACE:- Transarterial Chemoembolization for Liver Cancer Chemotherapy delivered directly into the tumour's blood supply. Particles block the artery, trapping the drug at the tumour site. The rest of the body is largely spared the systemic drug exposure of conventional chemotherapy. First-line recommendation for intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma per international guidelines.

HAE:- Haemorrhoidal Artery Embolization for Piles Grade 2–3 haemorrhoids treated in 30–45 minutes. Blood flow to the haemorrhoidal tissue is reduced. The swelling subsides. No surgical cuts. Home the same evening.

Every one of these procedures is performed through a puncture site that needs no stitches.

Pro Tip: Before any procedure I perform, I review the patient's imaging personally, MRI, CT, or Doppler ultrasound, depending on the condition. I explain what I see, what the procedure involves, what recovery looks like, and what happens if results are incomplete. That conversation happens before anything else. Always.

Key Takeaway: IR procedures share one thing in common: precision through a small entry point, guided by imaging, with outcomes comparable to surgery and recovery that takes days rather than weeks.

When I Tell Patients Surgery Is the Right Answer

I want to be honest about something.

I do not recommend IR procedures to every patient who comes to me. Some patients need surgery. And I tell them so directly, clearly, and with a referral to the right surgeon.

Grade 4 haemorrhoids with permanent prolapse. Structural joint damage requiring replacement. A tumour that needs clear surgical margins. Anatomically complex varicose veins where laser access is not technically feasible.

In all of these situations, I say: surgery is the right answer for you. And I refer without hesitation.

The specialists worth trusting in any field are the ones who know the limits of what they do. I know mine. And I think patients deserve a doctor who will tell them the truth even when that truth sends them to a different specialist.

At irdoctor, every patient assessment begins with imaging, honest discussion, and a treatment recommendation that is matched to what that specific patient actually needs, not a default pathway.

That is the standard I hold myself to. It is the only way I know how to work.

Pro Tip: A trustworthy specialist in any field will tell you when their approach is not the right one for your case. If every patient who walks in leaves with the same recommendation, that's not expertise. That's a template. Push for specifics. Ask why this treatment suits your anatomy specifically. A good answer references your imaging. A vague one doesn't.

Key Takeaway: The value of an IR consultation is not always a procedure booking. Sometimes it is the confidence that surgery is genuinely necessary. That clarity is worth the appointment on its own.

What I Want Patients in Chennai to Know

You are allowed to ask for more than one opinion.

You are allowed to say, "I want to understand all my options before I decide."

You are allowed to ask your surgeon: "Is there a non-surgical alternative I should know about?"

These are not difficult questions. They are not disrespectful questions. They are the questions every informed patient deserves to ask and every good specialist should be able to answer without defensiveness.

The reason most Chennai patients don't reach interventional radiologists is not that the speciality doesn't exist here. It does. It is that nobody points patients toward it. The referral pathway goes to surgeons. And unless someone actively directs you differently, you will follow that path and never know what else was available.

I am telling you now. Something else is available.

FAQ: People Also Ask

How do I book a consultation with an interventional radiologist in Chennai?  Search specifically for the procedure relevant to your condition: "UFE Chennai," "EVLA varicose veins Chennai," or "PAE prostate Chennai." Bring your most recent imaging, MRI, CT, or ultrasound to the first appointment. A good IR consultation begins with imaging review, not a general examination. Most IR clinics in Chennai offer same-week appointments for initial consultations.

What conditions does Dr Ravindran treat without surgery in Chennai? UFE for uterine fibroids, EVLA for varicose veins, PAE for enlarged prostate, varicocele embolization, GAE for knee osteoarthritis pain, TACE for intermediate-stage liver cancer, angioplasty for non-healing wounds, and HAE for Grade 2–3 haemorrhoids. All performed through a 2mm puncture under local anaesthesia with same-day or next-day discharge.

Why haven't I heard of interventional radiology before? Because IR specialists sit outside the standard GP-to-surgeon referral pathway. Most GPs refer to organ-specific surgeons by default. IR is a separate speciality, highly effective, widely available in Chennai, but rarely proactively mentioned to patients unless they ask. Awareness, not access, is the barrier.

When is it too late to consider an IR procedure instead of surgery?  Rarely. Even patients who have already had one surgical procedure and seen a recurrence can often benefit from IR treatment. Varicose veins returning after stripping, fibroids recurring after myomectomy, haemorrhoids returning after surgery, all of these can be addressed through embolization or laser procedures. The absence of surgical scarring in the procedure area usually makes IR access straightforward, even in previously operated cases.

Which IR procedure has the fastest recovery time? Varicocele embolization and HAE for piles both allow return to desk work within one to two days. EVLA for varicose veins typically takes three to five days. UFE and PAE involve one to two weeks of recovery. All of these compare favourably to their surgical equivalents, which range from two to six weeks of recovery depending on the procedure and approach.

Conclusion

That schoolteacher I mentioned at the beginning, the one who wanted to keep her uterus?

She came back to see me six months after UFE. She brought her students' drawings as a thank you. Forty-odd pieces of paper with crayon pictures of a doctor and a patient and big smiling suns above them.

I still have one on my desk.

It is not a monument to a complicated procedure. It is a reminder that the best outcomes are often the ones that avoid the most dramatic intervention. That sometimes the right answer is a 45-minute procedure, a walk to the car, and a drive home.

If you have been told surgery is your only option and something in you is looking for a second voice, I am here.

Bring your scans. Come with your questions. Leave with honest answers.

That is all I ask.

Written from clinical experience for educational purposes. This does not replace a formal medical consultation. Please consult a qualified specialist for personal assessment and treatment planning.

Dr Ravindran Endovascular and Interventional Radiologist, Chennai