Research reporting standards for percutaneous vertebral augmentation.

SINCE the first description of vertebroplasty in 1987 for the treatment of aggressive hemangiomas (1), vertebroplasty has become established as a safe and effective, minimally invasive procedure that offers a therapeutic option for patients with back pain from osteoporotic or tumor-related fractures. This initial success has spawned additional techniques for percutaneous vertebral augmentation, in which imaging guidance is used to inject radiopaque bone cement into a painful osteoporotic or neoplastic lesion in the spine. The typical treatment for a vertebral compression fracture involves the injection of bone cement into the vertebral body to fixate the fracture. Two of the most common methods involve either injection of a lowviscosity cement directly into the vertebral body (ie, vertebroplasty) or the use of a balloon to create a void in the cancellous bone and injection of the bone cement into this created void (ie, balloon kyphop-