Percutaneous ablation of benign bone tumors

Percutaneous image-guided ablation has become a standard of practice and one of the primary modalities for treatment of benign bone tumors. Ablation is most commonly used to treat osteoid osteomas but may also be used in the treatment of chondroblastomas, osteoblastomas, and giant cell tumors. Percutaneous image-guided ablation of benign bone tumors carries a high success rate (>90% in case series) and results in decreased morbidity, mortality, and expense compared with traditional surgical methods. The ablation technique most often applied to benign bone lesions is radiofrequency ablation. Because the ablation technique has been extensively applied to osteoid osteomas and because of the uncommon nature of other benign bone tumors, we will primarily focus this discussion on the percutaneous ablation of osteoid osteomas.