Intraoperative 99m technetium bone imaging in the treatment of benign osteoblastic tumors

Benign bone tumors can be successfully treated by local resection with the use of intraoperative bone imaging. Intraoperative bone imaging provided accurate localization of an osteoid osteoma in a patella of a 16-year-old girl when standard radiographs failed to demonstrate the lesion. In a case of osteoblastoma of the sacrum in a 12-year old girl, intraoperative scanning was used repeatedly to guide completeness of resection. In these cases in which routine intraoperative radiographs would have failed, intraoperative scanning proved to be essential for success.