Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

What You Need To Know About MRI

Learn how MRI helps us see inside your foot and ankle to guide treatment.

Understanding Foot and Ankle MRI

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the fastest and safest non-invasive method to get the clearest pictures of your foot and ankle condition. Since their invention in the late 1970’s, MRI has grown to become an indispensable part of practice for podiatric and orthopedic physicians.

As a high quality imaging tool, MRI allows us the ability to see inside the body and visualize a structure, determine the extent of injury, and provide focused treatment. MRI’s do this all without using X-rays. Instead, they use a magnetic field that absorbs or deflects the electric charge given off by the cells themselves and creates a picture from that deflected charge.

MRI is commonly used to evaluate soft tissue injuries, tendon and ligament damage, stress fractures, joint problems, and other conditions that may not show clearly on standard X-rays. When your provider needs a more detailed view of what is happening inside your foot or ankle, MRI often provides the answer.

While MRI has universal applications, not everyone qualifies for its use. Those with brain aneurysm clips, metallic foreign bodies in the eye, recent surgery with orthopedic implants, pacemakers, or cochlear implants should not use MRI. Our technologists are trained to determine if the MRI will be allowable for use before your scan begins.

If you have persistent foot or ankle pain that has not been fully explained by an exam or X-ray, talk with your provider about whether an MRI is the right next step.

Your Open MRI Experience With Us

Our MRI machines are open machines. You do not have to lie in a tube. You comfortably sit in an attached chair and simply place your leg in the machine while the MRI takes its pictures. For many patients, this makes the experience far more comfortable than a traditional full-body MRI.

We use industry-leading Extremity Open MRI machines to offer advanced imaging for our patients. Aside from being open, these machines are much quieter than traditional MRI’s, which helps reduce the anxiety many people feel about MRI scans.

The MRI process typically takes around one hour. Because the scan is focused on the extremity, the rest of your body stays outside the machine, and you can relax during the imaging. There is no radiation involved, and no injection is required for a standard scan.

All of our MRI’s are read by a board-certified musculoskeletal MRI radiologist who will provide a report within 24 hours. An appointment will then be made with your doctor to review the MRI and discuss treatment based on the findings.

Let the doctors at Nevada Foot and Ankle, using our open MRI, help you find and fix your concerns so you can get back to the activities you enjoy.