Vertebroplasty

Vertebral fractures (vertebral body compression fractures) are common causes of severe and disabling back pain. Due to severe pain, protracted immobilization, kyphosis, lung deterioration, depression, and loss of independence, many patients may have significant morbidity and a lower quality of life. Patients with vertebral fractures (VF) are also more likely to develop persistent back pain and have higher mortality rates.

Osteoporosis is the most common cause of VF. Primary and metastatic cancers, trauma, hemangioma, and osteonecrosis are among the other reasons. In the United States, more than 750,000 osteoporosis-related VF cases are identified each year, leading to approximately 117,000 hospital admissions. VF affects 1.45 million individuals worldwide each year, with a lifetime risk of 17 percent for women and 5 percent for men.

Conservative medical therapy, which includes analgesics, bed rest, and external bracing, is the conventional treatment for symptomatic VF. Symptoms usually improve in four to six weeks, and around two-thirds of patients respond to conservative therapy alone. However, up to a third of patients receiving conservative medical treatment may not recover and will require other treatment.

Galibert and colleagues first described vertebroplasty (VP) in the 1980s, and it has since been a commonly used alternative treatment for symptomatic VF that has failed to respond to conventional therapy. VP is a minimally invasive image-guided technique that involves injecting bone cement into a vertebral body fracture to reduce pain and increase fracture stability. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is still the most extensively used cement.