Wilderness related musculoskeletal injury: role of bone scintigraphy

Abstract

Musculoskeletal pain is a common sequela of wilderness related activities. X-ray analysis of persistent musculoskeletal pain often reveals no specific etiology. Nuclear medicine bone scintigraphy has the ability to detect several types of abnormalities which can be missed by plain film techniques. These abnormalities include: 1) stress fracture, 2) enthesopathy, 3) occult fracture. Scintigraphic diagnosis of these injuries can lead to proper and timely treatment while a negative bone scan can effectively rule out osseous injury.