ABSTRACT
As an imaging modality, magnetic resonance (MR) guidance has great potential to direct
diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed in the musculoskeletal region and
influence patient management. MR-guided interventional procedures involving bone,
soft tissue, intervertebral discs, and joints are safe and sufficiently effective
for use in clinical practice. This article discusses and illustrates the procedural
characteristics and techniques when performing MR-guided musculoskeletal interventions.
Biopsy procedures are similar to other modalities for bone and soft tissue lesions.
MR guidance is advantageous if the lesion is not visible by other modalities and for
regions adjacent to hardware and implants, subselective targeting, intra-articular
locations, and periarticular cyst aspiration. MR guidance has also been used for a
host of spine injections and pain management procedures such as sacroiliac joint injections,
discography, transforaminal epidural injection, selective nerve block, sympathetic
block, celiac plexus block, and facet joint cryotherapy neurotomies. Future directions
of clinical applications include tumor ablation and multimodality procedure suites.
MR-guided musculoskeletal procedures will continue to be a growth area particularly
for the diagnosis and treatment of bone and soft tissue neoplasia.
KEYWORDS
Musculoskeletal procedures - interventional radiology - magnetic resonance imaging
- biopsy - spine injections - tumor ablation
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John A CarrinoM.D. M.P.H.
Assistant Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Clinical Director, Magnetic
Resonance Therapy, Co-Director, Spine, Intervention Service
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Radiology, ASB-1, L1, Room 003A, 75 Francis
Street, Boston, MA 02115