Urological importance of interventional radiology techniques.

In radiology several therapeutical methods were developed and introduced in to clinical routine in the last 10 to 15 years. In part these techniques ar e in competition with established surgical procedures although their main a dvantage is significantly less invasion. For the urologist diagnostic radio logical procedures like selective blood sampling from renal or suprarenal v essels for hormone determination or CT-guided biopsy of retroperitoneal tum ors are of special interest as well as procedures with therapeutic aims suc h as placement of drainage-tubes, percutaneous therapy of varicoceles and a rterial endovascular interventions for hemorrhage or vascular wall stenosis . The role of these interventional techniques relevant for urology is descr ibed and critically discussed.