Minimally Invasive Treatment of Painful Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures

ABSTRACT

The consequences of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures are pain, progressive vertebral collapse with resultant kyphosis, and systemic manifestations. Minimally invasive stabilization procedures such as vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty have been introduced to treat for refractory pain due to these fractures. Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are new alternatives for the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. Both methods stabilize the fractured vertebra with polymethylmethacrylate cement to relieve pain and allow immediate mobilization. Kyphoplasty is an extension of vertebroplasty that uses an inflatable bone tamp to restore the vertebral body height while creating a cavity to be filled with bone cement. A large proportion of subjects had some pain relief both in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. Vertebral height restoration was possible using kyphoplasty and for a subset of patients using vertebroplasty. Cement leaks occurred in both groups but, the incidence of cement leakage in kyphoplasty is lower than that of the vertebroplasty. Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are safe and effective procedures. Good short-term results have been reported following both vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty for the painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Severe complications result from bone cement leakage into the spinal canal or the vascular system have been reported but the incidence was very rare. Both vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty offer therapeutic benefit significantly reducing pain and improving mobility in patients with vertebral fracture without significant differences between groups in term of quality. While early results are promising, more research is needed to better understand the log-term effects of both procedures on the human spine.