Bone scintigraphy: Part 2. Orthopedic bone scanning.

Bone scanning provides a functional assessment of skeletal pathology not available with conventional radiography or special radiographic techniques such as CT and MRI. Bone scanning detects osteoblastic activity associated with many forms of orthopedic skeletal disease. Several of the more common orthopedic applications of bone scanning have been described above, while equally important topics such as prothesis loosening, avascular necrosis, and the reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome were not considered. Thus, for a great range of benign skeletal pathology, bone scanning can provide the orthopedic surgeon with practical information concerning the cause of the patient's pain, the true significance of otherwise questionable radiographic findings, the extent of disease and the results of orthopedic surgical treatment.