PRE- AND POSTSURGICAL IMAGING OF BIPHOSPHONATE OSTEONECROSIS OF THE MAXILLA AND MANDIBLE

PURPOSE/AIM To describe the CT and MRI findings in patients with biphosphonate osteonecrosis of the mandible and maxilla, and emphasize their role in driving the correct therapeutic approach (conservative vs surgical). CONTENT ORGANIZATION The exhibit will show multiple cases, collected from the electronic database of the University of Pisa (n=70), and will be organized as follows: Section 1 - Pathophysiology of biphosphonate osteonecrosis. Section 2 - Multirow CT and MRI imaging protocol. Section 3 - Cases presentation of pre-operative CT/MRI imaging with surgical correlation. Section 4 - Cases presentation of post-operative follow-up. Section 5 - Evaluation test SUMMARY Biphosphonate osteonecrosis of the maxilla and mandible is an increasingly disease in oncologic patients. CT and MRI have the potential to identify patients at preclinical or early stages of the disease, with the possibility to accurately depict the extent of bone involvement. The exhibit aims to help the radiologist involved in oncologic and maxillo-facial imaging to recognize the early stages of the disease, and quantify the bone involvement in the advanced stages.