Magnetic resonance imaging in planning limb-salvage surgery for

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primary malignant tumors of bone. Sundaram-M; McGuire-MH; Herbold-DR; Wolverson-MK; Heiberg-E J-Bone-Joint-Surg-Am. 1986 Jul; 68(6): 809-19 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.