The distal femoral defect: technetium-99m pyrophosphate bone scan results.

To determine the scintigraphic findings in children with distal femoral defects (or subperiosteal desmoids) the authors retrospectively examined 94 sets of radiographs and technetium-99m pyrophosphate bone scans of 54 children. Twenty-four examples of distal femoral defects were identified in 19 children. Only two children demonstrate focally increased uptake of radionuclide in the distal femur. The positive bone scan was caused by osteomyelitis in one of these patients and by metastatic lymphoma in the other. None of the 17 other children with distal femoral defects on radiography had a corresponding focal increase in uptake of radionuclide. The bone scan appears to be a useful method for confirming that a distal femoral defect is benign and, when positive, indicates the presence of other disease.