Radiopharmaceutical bone scanning in pediatric neurosurgery.

Radionuclide bone scanning is an extremely sensitive, safe and widely applicable investigative aid. In most circumstances it cannot be employed to the exclusion of plain radiography as the two procedures--one dynamic and the other static--complement each other. In children, bone imaging demonstrates physiologic characteristics of bone growth and early suture closure, delineates obscure tumors and infection, recent or old trauma not always visible on orthodox radiography and may solve the diagnostic dilemma of a child with heretofore undiagnosed head, neck or back pain.