Garza-Berlanga, Andres ESchool of Medicine |
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I am a board-certified radiologist who received specialty training in Vascular and Interventional Radiology with additional specialty board certification in Interventional Radiology. I have served the institution for the last 6 years as a clinical vascular and interventional radiologist and as an educator and mentor of residents, fellows and medical students. My accomplishments/achievements and service to the institution and the Department of Radiology are described. Please see personal statement for further details related to `self-description?. |
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| 4/2017 - Present | Radiology Medical Director | LifeCare Hospital of San Antonio, Radiology, San Antonio, TX |
| 3/2017 - Present | Staff Radiologist - Interventional Radiology | LifeCare Hospital at San Antonio, Radiology, San Antonio, TX |
| 7/2011 - Present | Assistant Professor | UT Health San Antonio, Radiology, San Antonio, TX |
| 7/2011 - Present | Staff Radiologist - Interventional Radiology | University Heath System, Radiology, San Antonio, TX |
| Year | Degree | Discipline | Institution |
| 2011 | Clinical Fellowship | Vascular and Interventional Radiology | Rush University Medical Center Chicago , IL |
| 2009 | Residency | Diagnostic Radiology | Universidad de Monterrey At Christus-Muguerza Hospital Monterrey , Mexico |
| 2004 | Internship | Internal Medicine | Louisiana State University (LSU) Medical Center at Shreveport Shreveport , LA |
| 2001 | MD | Medicine | Universidad de Monterrey Monterrey , Mexico |
Abscess Drainage- Purulent material under pressure (abscess) is at risk of causing septicemia (whole body infection) and septic shock. As an interventional radiologist, I treat and relieve an abscess by inserting a drain through the skin into the abscess (percutaneous drainage). This also includes placement of a drain into the gallbladder in patients with acute cholecystitis who are not surgical candidates. |
Cancer Patients Palliative and Curative Care- Oncology patients constitute a large part of the Interventional Radiology practice at the UT Health San Antonio. Multiple palliative and curative treatments are performed, including: 1) placement of enteral support feeding tubes or decompression tubes; 2) cementoplasty of pathologic bone fractures to stabilize the bone and reduce pain symptoms; 3) tumor ablation using ethanol or thermal with microwave, radiofrequency or cryoablation needles, and 4) local, regional (loco-regional) tumor management using selective endovascular chemoembolization or radioembolization directly into the vessels that feed the tumors to eliminate or reduce tumor size avoiding systemic distribution and whole body toxic side effects. As an expert consultant, I am an active participant in multidisciplinary tumor boards for the evaluation and management of patients with cancer. |
Diagnostic Biopsies- I have the required experience to perform ultrasound-directed and CT-guided biopsies of almost all disease-affected organs in the body in order to obtain a tissue diagnosis, which is crucial in the successful management of patients with a variety of clinical conditions I perform image guided percutaneous biopsies in almost all parts of the human body using minimally invasive techniques that help obtain more specific diagnosis that can guide better treatments. |
Dialysis Access Maintenance- Over a 250,000 patients with renal failure are on hemodialysis (HD) in the USA, with a large number in our local community. Maintenance of the hemodialysis catheters has a significant impact on the patients survivability and health care cost related to renal failure management. As an interventionalist, the following procedures are performed by me to maintain the hemodialysis access on patients with renal failure: 1) dialysis arterial venous fistulogram; 2) angioplasty and stenting of malfunctioning AV fistulas and grafts; and 3) declotting and thrombolysis of clotted arteriovenous fistulas and grafts. |
Embolization- Embolization involves the selective occlusion of blood vessels by purposely introducing emboli to deliberately block a blood vessel; the technique is used to treat a wide variety of conditions affecting different organs of the human body. I perform embolization procedures to control hemorrhage in a variety of situations such as traumatic vascular injury, acute gastrointestinal bleeding, bronchopulmonary in patients with massive hemoptysis, and bleeding from medical procedures complicated by vascular injury. |
Gastrointestinal Interventions- I perform multiple interventional procedures on patients with a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, to include: GI bleeding, malnutrition, biliary obstruction, and chronic/ acute mesenteric ischemia. These procedures include: gastrostomy tube and gastrojejunostomy tube placement for feeding and drainage; selective embolization of visceral arteries for upper or lower GI bleeding; transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt placement (TIPSS) for treatment of portal hypertension sequelae; balloon-assisted retrograde obliteration for controlling bleeding gastric gastric varices; percutaneous cholangiogram and biliary drain placement for treatment of obstructed bile ducts, cholangitis and iatrogenic injuries to the bile ducts; and mesenteric angiography, thrombolysis, angioplasty and stenting for the management of acute and chronic mesenteric ischemia. |
Genitourinary Interventions- Interventions on the genitourinary (GU) system are performed in order to treat the obstruction, pain and infection associated with renal colic, and to preserve kidney function by diverting the urine in an obstructed kidney. The procedures performed by me include: 1) nephrostomy drain placement for treatment of obstructive hydronephrosis and pyonephrosis or for the treatment of a urine leak in cases of injury; 2) percutaneous nephroureteral or double J ureteral stent placement for the management of obstruction related to chronic ureteral disease; 3) renal artery stenting for the treatment of secondary hypertension in select patients; and 4) endovascular treatment of testicular varices (varicocele) to improve the symptoms. I can perform endovascular treatments to improve symptoms of urinary tract obstruction or hemorrhage from benign and malignant prostate disease by embolizing the vessels that supply the gland that result in reduction of the glands volume liberating obstrutions, or for reducing the local blood flow and pressure to control hemorrhage. |
Obstetrics and Gynecology- I perform minimally invasive vascular procedures that effectively correct menorrhagia (bleeding caused by uterine fibroids) without surgical intervention and which may be done on an outpatient basis. I also perform endovascular treatments for less frequent gynecological diseases like pelvic congestion syndrome and to emergently control bleeding for oncologic and postpartum uterine hemorrhage complications. |
Organ Transplant- I have expertise in the pre and post-transplant management of liver, kidney and lung transplant patients using interventional techniques such as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement and balloon retrograde transvenous obliteration (BRTO) for the treatment of portal hypertension, visceral varicose bleeding, and refractory ascites in patients with advanced chronic liver disease waiting for transplant. Other procedures for the treatment of peri-transplant patients include correction of biliary drainage problems or obstructive cholangitis due to stenosis form anastomosis or ischemia, endovascular angioplasty and stenting of the hepatic artery and portal vein strictures in liver transplant patients, angioplasty and stenting of the renal artery in kidney transplant patients, and nephrostomy tube placement in obstructive hydronephrosis in kidney transplant patients. |
Peripheral Vascular Disease- I perform multiple endovascular techniques to improve arterial or venous flow in patients who have severe atherosclerotic disease or obstruction of blood flow. My expertise in using angioplasty, stents, thrombolysis, atherectomy and other vascular recanalization techniques impacts inpatient, outpatient and emergency patient care. |
Vascular Access- Venous access procedures are one of the most frequent procedures performed in our interventional radiology suite. Almost daily, I perform the following procedures with expertise to gain vascular access: 1) placement of a peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC) for long term venous access to infuse antibiotics and in patients who have poor veins and/or need frequent IV access; 2) insertion of tunneled and non-tunneled central venous catheters for hemodialysis, bone marrow transplant and plasmapheresis; 3) placement of port catheters for chemotherapy. |
| Date | Description | Institution | # Students |
| 7/2011 - Present | Radiology Resident Noon Lectures - Interventional Radiology Month | 40 students | |
| The faculty of the section of Vascular and Interventional Radiology of the Diagnostic Radiology Department is scheduled to lecture noon resident conferences throughout the month of April each year. A total of 12 lectures are presented during a 1 hour lunch break, 3 days a week, to the Radiology residents. I am scheduled to give 1-2 of the lectures of the series each year. | |||
| 7/2011 - Present | Interventional Radiology Faculty Lectures | 5 students | |
| Every year, a series of 31 lectures that cover the basic syllabus of clinical procedures and services provided by the section of Vascular and Interventional Radiology is presented to the trainees of the section. A 1 hour lecture is presented by faculty each week to the students, residents and fellows rotating through the service. Of the 31 lectures in the syllabus, I am assigned to give 5, the lectures of (1)Trans-Arterial Chemoembolization, (2) Percutaneous Ablation of Tumors, (3) Tumor Radioembolization Treatment, (4) Percutaneous Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty and (5) Percutanous Peritoneal and Pleural Drainages | |||
| 7/2011 - Present | Rotation Student Supervision | ||
Abstract |
| Chamarthy M, Suri R, Kroma G, GARZA-BERLANGA A, Lopera JE. Correlation of Treatment Response Pathological Response in Explanted Livers DEB-TACE and Interstitial Ablation Treatments for HCC; 2015 Feb. (Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (Supplement); vol. 26, no. 2Supl). |
| Lopera JE, Kroma G, GARZA-BERLANGA A, Suri R, Wholey M. Use of Cone Beam CT for Complex Biliary Interventions; 2015 Feb. (Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (Supplement); vol. 26, no. 2Supl). |
| Haq A, Heeter Z, Lopera JE, Suri R, GARZA-BERLANGA A, Kroma G. Mesocaval Shunt Creation by Interventional Radiology: Percutaneous and Endovascular Approaches in an Illustrated Case-based Review; 2015 Feb. (Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (Supplement); vol. 26, no. 2Supl). |
Journal Article |
| Lopera JE, Garza-Berlanga AE, Kroma G, Suri R, Walker JA. Microwave Ablation for HCC: Single Center 4-Year Experience With Long Term Follow-Up Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology 2018 Jan;27(3). |
| Lopera JE,Hegg, Gready, E, Kroma G, RGarza-Berlanga AE, Suri R. Complex Biliary Interventions: Percutaneous Small Bowel Access Confirmation With Cone Beam CT and Retrograde Biliary Obstruction Recanalization Gastrointestinal Intervention 2017 Jul;6(2):140-144. |
| GARZA-BERLANGA AE, Lopera JE. Interventional Radiology: Interventions and Techniques in Trauma Curr Trauma Rep 2016 Aug;:159-164. |
| Lopera JE, Garza-Berlanga AE, Kroma G, Suri R. BRTO for Bleeding Gastric Varices: Review of Complications and How to Avoid Them Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology 2016 Jan;27(3). |
| Lopera JE, Katabathina V, Bosworth B, Garg D, Kroma G, GARZA-BERLANGA A, Suri R, Wholey M. Segmental Liver Ischemia/Infarction After Elective Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt Creation: Clinical Outcomes in 10 patients Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology 2015 Jun;26(6):835-841. |
| Chamarthy, M, Suri R, Kroma G, Garza-Berlanga AE, Lopera JE. Correlation of Treatment Response on Follow Up Imaging With Pathological Response in Explanted Livers After DEB-TACE and Interstitial Ablation Treatments for HCC Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology 2015 Jan;26(2S):S59-S60. |
| Lopera JE, Speeg KV, Young C, Garg D, Michalek J, Chen Y, Kroma G, Suri R, GARZA-BERLANGA A. Effect of Liver Volume in Morbidity and Mortality After Elective Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt Gastrointestinal Intervention 2014 Dec;3(2):93-97. |
| Lopera JE, Shapiro, M, Sanchez, D, Maya, D, Kroma G, Garza-Berlanga AE, Suri R. Superor Vena Cava (SVC) Filters Plaed Over Central Lines - Analysis of Line Trapping and Difficulties With Line Retrival: An In-Vitro Experimental Study Acta Radiologica 2014 Jan;55(6):732-736. |
Review Article |
| Lopera JE, Suri R, Kroma G, Garza-Berlanga AE, Thomas, J. Role of Interventional Procedures in Obstetrics/Gynecology Radiologic Clinic of North America 2013 Jan;51(6):1049-1066. |