Scintigraphic appearance of the tibia in the early stages following fracture.

A scintigraphic study of the human tibia in the early stages following fracture of the shaft was carried out to investigate the condition of the blood supply of the main fracture fragments. Using a gamma camera and 99mTc-MDP, scintigraphs were obtained from less than 24 hours to 21 days after injury. A generalized increase in tracer uptake was found in the tibia in all cases. In some cases very early after injury there was an additional local increase at the fracture site. In 10% of cases "cold spots" were observed, which may indicate an impaired blood supply to bone tissue adjacent to the fracture. Neither the presence of a "cold spot" nor any other scintigraphic feature could be correlated with the progress or time to fracture union.