Orthop Clin N Am 37 (2006) xi–xii
Preface
Peter L. Munk MD, CM, FRCPC
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 cross-
sectional imaging techniques, including CT,
MRI, ultrasound, and positron emission tomog-
raphy, 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 muscu-
loskeletal 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 muscu-
lar diseases in a fashion undreamed of previously.
0030-5898/06/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ocl.2006.04.007
Bassam Masri, MD, FRCSC
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 be-
come 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 in-
terventions, such as ablation of vascular malfor-
mations and injection of acrylic bone cement into
compression fractures and other lesions.
The breadth of radiology has provided fruitful
ground for close collaboration between radiolo-
gists and orthopedic surgeons, which has certainly
been our experience. A close collaborative envi-
ronment 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
orthopedic.theclinics.com
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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: peter.munk@vch.ca
PREFACE
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: bas.masri@vch.ca