NICE makes recommendations about whether interventional procedures used for diagnosis or treatment are safe enough and work well enough for routine use.
An interventional procedure is a procedure used for diagnosis or treatment that involves one of the following:
- making a cut or a hole to gain access to the inside of a patient's body - for example, when carrying out an operation or inserting a tube into a blood vessel.
- gaining access to a body cavity (such as the digestive system, lungs, womb or bladder) without cutting into the body - for example, examining or carrying out treatment on the inside of the stomach using an instrument inserted via the mouth.
- using electromagnetic radiation (which includes X-rays, lasers, gamma-rays and ultraviolet light) - for example, using a laser to treat eye problems.
Read more about interventional procedures guidance
- List of all published interventional procedures
- List of all interventional procedures
- How we develop NICE interventional procedures guidance
- About interventional procedures
This page was last updated: 18 July 2011
