Multislice computed tomography in the complex assessment of deformities of long tubular bones of the lower extremities: prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Progress in science is attributed to improvements in research methods. The rapid development in diagnostic radiology observed in the last two decades has opened fundamentally new opportunities for clinical medicine, making practically all organs, and tissue structures of the human body accessible for research. Computer technology in medicine makes it possible to assess in more detail deformities of the lower extremity and improve methods of surgical treatment that determine the individual correction of the shape of the deformed bone.

AIM: To comprehensively assess deformities of the long bones of the lower extremities using modern methods of radiation diagnostics – computed tomography.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Surgery, as the main treatment of patients with deformities of the long bones of the limbs, cannot be effectively implemented without knowing detailed appearance of the femur and tibia and all the elements of the deformity. Angular deformities of the long bones are usually assessed by plain radiographs in frontal and lateral projections, and rotational deformities of the long bones are assessed by multislice computed tomography.

RESULTS: In the National Medical Research Center of Traumatology and Orthopedics named after N.N. Priorov and Clinic of Scientific Medicine, computed tomography studies of the long bones of the lower extremities and hip and lower limb deformities were performed from 2015 to 2022. The study involved 265 patients aged <65 years, who were divided according to the type of deformity.

CONCLUSION: Complex X-ray diagnostics for deformities of the long bones of the lower extremities according to our method allows us to represent the deformity not only in planimetric, but also in stereometric terms. This helps eliminate projection–angular and volumetric– rotational deformations.