Kirk Minkus, MD, Interventional Radiologist
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Kirk Minkus, MD

Interventional Radiologist | Vascular & Interventional Radiology

3/5(8)
7529 E Broadway Rd Mesa AZ, 85208
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Rating

3/5

About

Dr. Kirk MInkus is an interventional radiologist practicing in Mesa, AZ. Dr. MInkus specializes in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. Interventional radiologists use X-Rays, MRIs and other advanced imaging to put catheters in the body in order to treat the source of the disease internally. Many conditions that once required surgery can now have less risk, less pain and fewer invasions when treated by an interventional radiologist.

Education and Training

St. George’s University School of Medicine MD 1998

Board Certification

Vascular & Interventional Radiology (Radiology)

American Board of Radiology (ABR)

Provider Details

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Kirk Minkus, MD
Kirk Minkus, MD's Expert Contributions
  • Do you get sedation for thyroid radioactive iodine treatment?

    Not sure, out of my scope of expertise. I do not believe it is necessary. READ MORE

  • Can an abdominal aneurysm be fixed?

    abdominal aneurysms can be fixed by putting in a long multi segmental covered stent system called endograft. It works quite well but asked to be done by experienced hands in Interventional Cardiology, Interventional Radiology, Vascular surgery, or Cardiovascular surgery depending in his location. You can go online and look it up on Google or YouTube further under "abdominal endograft placement". Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • Can a chest x-ray diagnose bronchitis?

    Yes it can, it may show a slightly hazy appearance to a portion of the lungs on either the right or left side. Bronchitis is usually diagnosed more from symptoms alone and lack of any significant patchy opacify findings on the chest x-ray. READ MORE

  • Is local anesthesia for vein ablation safe?

    Absolutely safe if administered properly in the tissues and not intravascular, and usually the preferred standard of practice for vein ablation. READ MORE

  • What anesthesia is used for radioactive iodine treatment?

    Not sure. Out of my scope of practice. READ MORE

  • How long is a brain MRI procedure?

    It always depends on what in the brain needs to be scanned. An MRI of the brain can take around 45 minutes. An MRA or magnetic resonance angiogram, may take a little bit longer or if this additional study is requested, it could double the time needed to get through all imaging desired. READ MORE

  • Can a contrast dye cause damage?

    Contrast dye during CT examinations can cause damage to kidneys if someone has renal failure or renal insufficiency. That is to be determined by the patient's evaluation by their primary care physician and lab values that represent how well the kidneys are functioning. The imaging centers across the country are very aware of the effect of contrast in the kidneys when they are doing the imaging studies and will always ask the patient about this. They will either decide to significantly reduce the contrast load to minimize the effect in the kidneys, do the imaging without contrast, or cancel the imaging altogether and get back to the ordering physician to let them know that the patient's kidneys can not take the contrast needed for the study to be diagnostic and adequately useful. Anyone who has kidney insufficiency or failure, or a family member that knows about it, should be an advocate for the patient when they go for a contrasted imaging study anywhere at any time. Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • Is CT scan dye safe for children?

    Yes if the patient's kidneys are working adequately and they reduce the amount of contrast needed for a younger, smaller patient. READ MORE

  • How serious is heart bypass surgery?

    It can be very serious depending on how severe the heart disease is. This is out of my scope of practice and he should talk to a Cardiothoracic surgeon. READ MORE

  • Can a child get a CT scan under anesthesia?

    Yes absolutely. The anesthesiologists know handle children very well and they would just need to reduce the amount of dye that you typically would use an adult depending on the age of the child. READ MORE

  • Is abdominal aneurysm serious?

    An abdominal aneurysm is a fusiform, football shaped enlargement that develops usually around the mid to lower portion of your abdominal aorta and can get serious once it gets beyond about 4.5 cm in diameter. It should be monitored every 6 months with an ultrasound or CT scan to see if it is getting larger. Any pain you have in your abdomen should be reported to your physician immediately. Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • When is radiofrequency ablation used in cancer treatment?

    Sorry, I have very limited knowledge in this particular area but there is something called a gamma knife that you should look into for that treatment. You will have to talk to a radiation oncologist group or neurosurgeon who was more familiar with these treatments. Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • Can liver cancer be treated with interventional radiology?

    You can treat with bland embolization or chemoembolization as well as possible yttrium embolization to which has a nuclear procedure where beta admitting particles are flushed into the liver cancer in the locally destroy the cancer with nuclear wave treatment. Dr. Charles Nutting, MD, is a brilliant interventional radiologist In Colorado just South Denver that does a lot of this catheter based, minimally invasive liver oncology treatment work in his vascular lab over there. Very brilliant guy. You can contact him for further questions. Tell him I said hello. Although there are many physicians around the country that can do chemoembolizations or yttrium or these other type of catheter based interventions for liver cancer as well. He just have to inquire from interventional radiologists in your area. Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • How long does dye stay in your system after a CT scan?

    You can look it up online for a better explanation, but I believe the contrast is excreted from your system from your urine within 24-36 hours after the contrast CT scan. You just have to drink a lot of water for a day or so and that should flush right through as long as your kidneys are working adequately. You will not see anything in the toilet as it all comes out clear when you urinate it out. Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • Can you tell me a little about uterine fibroid embolization to treat uterine fibroids?

    Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) is an excellent alternative to hysterectomy. If you have 1 or multiple fibroids in her uterus that are all hopefully less than a proximally 11-12 cm in diameter, that can be adequately treated and shrunk down with embolized in the uterine arteries bilaterally that lead to them in your uterus. If he wanted to still have children, UF he is the best option. If your done having children or 45 years old or older, I would recommend talking with the OB/GYN about considering hysterectomy instead. The UFE procedure has some risks involved including having the embolic particles going to undesirable non targeted vessels including the ovarian artery which could put you into early menopause, but that is much more rare these days as the procedure has been significantly improved over the past 20 years. 1 thing that is important to note with uterine fibroid embolization is that it does come with some significant pain as a result of the about part of her goals which dissipates over the coming days afterwards. You will need to take pain medication at home afterwards. You can have the procedure done in the hospital with injectable pain medication like Dilaudid or morphine, or you can do the procedure in an outpatient setting just as easily but then have to manage the pain at home as long as your properly premedicated before, during, and after the procedure using proper protocols. Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • Length of DVT dissolve

    A DVT persisting for 9 months would become chronic after the 4th or 5th month, even with treatment, if it was responding the way that you are describing. If you are having significant symptoms still in that affected leg, you need to talk to a vein physician or interventional radiologist about possibly doing a percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy by going into the bottom part of your knee or calf and coursing upward across her leg to see if they can get the clot of your thigh or pelvis in his there. Otherwise it is very difficult to treat chronic clot after blood thinner medication has failed. There is 1 option to change from 1 direct oral anticoagulant to another and see if that helps. But I think at this time, 9 months later, mechanical thrombectomy would probably be more effective if the clot can be reached to a large degree and a large bulk of it removed. if the clot has become chronic and fibrosed, or scarred as you say, the leg would compensate by creating venous outflow tracts around it to a lawyer leg to return to normal size and function without swelling, discoloration, or pain. If that was the case, you would not need to treat the chronic clot any further but I would recommend continuing on baby aspirin once a day from there and have it monitored over the next 2 years with repeat venous ultrasound scans of the area. You're quite young at 31 years old and would not want you to have to be on aspirin for the rest of your life at this point. Hope that helps. READ MORE

  • Tailbone pain Worsening post-blood patch

    I am sorry I do not have a lot of experience with blood patch placement in the subsequent complications or failures of the technique. However, if you are still having these type of symptoms after the blood patch, you need to go back to the interventionalist that did the procedure and let them know immediately as you may be leaking CSF and that could be giving you the headaches and lower back pain. Best I can tell you at this time. It is all I know. Please contact the IR physician that did the blood patch and let them know. READ MORE

  • What could cause this sclerotic lesion?

    Looks like an enchondroma or bone island, both of which are benign. They could have some mild pain associated with them depending on the attention of the pull on the joint or the position of the body at times. If you having that much pain in the area, you need to get an MRI of your pelvis and upper legs as well as a nuclear bone scan to evaluate for areas of inflammation and that may lead to a PET scan to take a look to see if there is areas of metastatic cancer as well which is much less likely young age. It does not look suspicious for cancer but you would want to rule that out as it being the most threatening diagnosis we would be considering. Hope that helps. Good luck. READ MORE

Expert Publications

Data provided by the National Library of Medicine

Areas of expertise and specialization

Peripheral arterial disease, pelvic venous outflow obstruction - May-Thurner syndrome, pelvic congestion syndrome, kyphoplasty for vertebral fractures, chemotherapy port placements.Pelvic Congestion Syndrome with coil embolization

Faculty Titles & Positions

  • Vice chief of staff Yuma regional Medical Center 2011 - 2014
  • Officer of physician relations Yuma regional Medical Center 2009 - 2011

Awards

  • Patient’s Choice Award and the Most Compassionate Doctor Award Year  
  • Top 10 Doctors in Arizona 2014 Vitals.com 

Professional Memberships

  • Society of Interventional Radiology  
  • American Board of Radiology  
  • American College of Radiology  

Fellowships

  • Rush University Medical Center Interventional Radiology  2004

Areas of research

 HIV, contrast in the spinal and cranial aspect of the vertebrae and never system.

Kirk Minkus, MD's Practice location

Southwest Cardiovascular Associates

7529 E Broadway Rd -
Mesa, AZ 85208
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New patients: 480-945-4343
https://swcva.com/find-care/cardiology-doctors/kirk-minkus-md

Kirk Minkus, MD's reviews

(8)
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Patient Experience with Dr. MInkus


3.0

Based on 8 reviews

Kirk Minkus, MD has a rating of 3 out of 5 stars based on the reviews from 8 patients. FindaTopDoc has aggregated the experiences from real patients to help give you more insights and information on how to choose the best Interventional Radiologist in your area. These reviews do not reflect a providers level of clinical care, but are a compilation of quality indicators such as bedside manner, wait time, staff friendliness, ease of appointment, and knowledge of conditions and treatments.

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