Musculoskeletal

Orthop Clin N Am 37 (2006) xi–xii

Preface

Peter L. Munk MD, CM, FRCPC Bassam Masri, MD, FRCSC Guest Editors

Over the past 25 years an extraordinary revolution has occurred in radiology. Over this period the variety of diagnostic and interventional techniques available has expanded dramatically, significantly changing the way we evaluate and treat musculoskeletal disorders. The development and refinement of crosssectional imaging techniques, including CT, MRI, ultrasound, and positron emission tomography, have revolutionized the evaluation of disease. With the development of CT and its increasingly generalized adoption in the 1970s and early 1980s, applications were found for its use in evaluation of orthopedic and other musculoskeletal patients. The development of MRI dramatically changed the way that we look at disease of the musculoskeletal system in a fashion similar to how CT revolutionized evaluation of the central nervous system. MRI can allow evaluation of joints for internal derangement, staging of tumors before surgery and other therapies, and evaluation of cartilage and muscular diseases in a fashion undreamed of previously.

Ultrasound also is taking an increasingly important role in evaluation of patients because it can provide dynamic real-time information and is also invaluable in guiding biopsies and injections. Interventional radiologic procedures have become common throughout the western world. This issue reviews a selection of the possible interventional procedures ranging from some of the more straightforward procedures, such as therapeutic joint injection, to more complex interventions, such as ablation of vascular malformations and injection of acrylic bone cement into compression fractures and other lesions. The breadth of radiology has provided fruitful ground for close collaboration between radiologists and orthopedic surgeons, which has certainly been our experience. A close collaborative environment not only allows the radiologist’s efforts to become more meaningful and better tailored to the needs of the orthopedic surgeon but also allows the orthopedic surgeon to tap the reservoir of ingenuity and tricks that radiologists can apply

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PREFACE

toward the diagnosis and management of a wide variety of orthopedic disorders. Peter L. Munk, MD, CM, FRCPC Musculoskeletal Division Department of Radiology Vancouver General Hospital University of British Columbia 899 West 12th Avenue Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9, Canada E-mail address: [email protected]

Bassam Masri, MD, FRCSC Division of Lower Limb Reconstruction and Oncology Department of Orthopaedics University of British Columbia 910 West Tenth Avenue Suite 3114 Vancouver, BC V5Z 4E3, Canada E-mail address: [email protected]