Vertebroplasty

Project leaders

• D.R. Arian van Erkel PhD
• P.D.S. Sander Dijkstra MD, PhD

PhD Student:

S.P.J. Sander Muijs MD

Start/End Date

January 2005 – December  2008

Grant giver

None

Academic partners

Department of Radiology LUMC

Abstract

Percutaneous vertebroplasty is now considered a routine procedure in treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs). The evidence of the effectiveness of the procedure is promising, but mainly based on cohort studies without control groups and a few low quality randomized controlled studies. Some or even all of the improvement in clinical outcome might however be caused by the favorable natural course of OVCF, regression to the mean of patients presenting to clinicians at the peak of their pain, or a placebo effect. The low complication rate of the procedure ranges from 1.3 to 2.5% and is mainly due to cement leakage. We prospectively analyzed the influence of the viscosity, the volume and leakage of the bone cement in relation to the quality of life. The necessity of  taking a biopsy during the vertebroplasty was evaluated.