Minimally invasive treatments of spinal metastases: vertebroplasty, radiofrequency ablation and radiation therapy / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:The development of minimaly invasive technology significantly reduces the occurrence of surgical complications due to spinal metastases. Currently, the minimaly invasive treatment basicaly has three broad categories vertebral cement augmentation, radiofrequency ablation combined with vertebroplasty, intraoperative radiotherapy combined with vertebroplasty. OBJECTIVE:To summarize the research progress of three kinds of minimaly invasive treatments for spinal metastases. METHODS:PubMed and Wanfang databases were searched using the keywords of spinal metastases, vertebroplasty, radiofrequency ablation, radiotherapy in English and Chinese, respectively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Vertebral cement augmentation with good analgesic effect has been used widely, and the efficiency is up to 80%-90%. But its effect to kil tumors is very limited that is unable to control tumor growth. Radiofrequency ablation and radiation can kil the tumor, but cannot rebuild the vertebral stability. Therefore, the combination of different technologies can improve the therapeutic effect on spinal tumors. In recent years, intraoperative radiation and implantation of radioactive particles or radioactive bone cement have been developed as new technologies. However, there is no conclusion that these new technologies have better outcomes than the vertebral cement augmentation because of less reports and lack of long-term folow-up. Especialy in the metastatic patients with damaged vertebral posterior wal and tumors invaded into vertebral canal, the risk of nerve function damage caused by bone cement leakage is stil very high, even after many attempts. Above al, there is no a perfect minimaly invasive treatment for spinal metastases.