title: Magnetic resonance imaging in planning limb-salvage surgery for primary malignant tumors of bone.
abstract: In defining the linear extent of a malignant tumor in a long bone, radiographs, computerized tomography, and scintigraphy are routinely employed, especially when non-ablative surgery is being considered. The drawbacks of these modalities in defining the true intracompartmental extent of disease within a bone can largely be overcome with the use of magnetic resonance imaging. We did a prospective analysis of magnetic resonance imaging in sixteen consecutive patients with a primary malignant tumor of a long bone, and it showed that this modality has clinical promise of being more precise than the other modalities in defining the true proximal and distal extent of a tumor in a long bone. Coronal images permit easier planning of surgical techniques for salvage of a limb using an allograft than do a multiplicity of transverse images.
mesh_terms: D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D016025:Bone Transplantation; D002813:Chondrosarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D005266:Femoral Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D005354:Fibrosarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011446:Prospective Studies