Benign soft tissue masses of the wrist and hand: MRI appearances.

We reviewed 20 cases of soft tissue masses of the hand and wrist, and compared the impressions from the original magnetic resonance (MR) imaging reports with the preoperative clinical impression and postoperative pathological diagnoses. The most commonly occurring masses were ganglia, lipomas, and giant cell tumors of tendon sheaths. MR imaging suggested the correct diagnosis in 16 of the 20 cases, whereas the clinical impression was correct in 10 instances. Confident was correct in 10 instances. Confident preoperative diagnosis may be made with MR imaging due to the characteristic appearances of many benign soft tissue tumors.