A team led by Dr. Roberto Scipione of the Sapienza University of Rome studied 45 patients with clinical and radiological diagnostic findings of osteoid osteoma who underwent MRgFUS. The group tracked safety, clinical effectiveness (using a visual analog scale pain score of 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain and 10 being extreme pain), and durability (stability of the procedure's results over time). All patients were followed postprocedure for four years.
The researchers found that none of the patients experienced treatment-related complications; 80% had a "complete and durable response" to the procedure, and 87% reached and maintained a stable pain score of 0 over the follow-up period. The study also showed that at the three-year follow-up, the osteoid osteoma in 76% of patients treated with MRgFUS alone showed no vascularization.
"Our results support the role of MRgFUS as a first-line treatment option for accessible osteoid osteoma," Scipione and colleagues concluded.
