The vertebral body fracture in osteoporosis: restoration of height using percutaneous vertebroplasty.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Percutaneous vertebroplasty is an effective tool for the relief of pain caused by osteoporotic spine fractures. Our purpose is to evaluate this technique and its effectiveness in restoring the height of such fractures. METHODS Forty osteoporotic vertebral body fractures in 30 consecutive patients (24 female, six males; mean age, 70 years) were analyzed retrospectively, before and after percutaneous vertebroplasty, for changes in vertebral body height, kyphosis angle, and wedge angle. The ages of the fractures range from 1 to 5 months. RESULTS Percutaneous vertebroplasty improved the pretreatment height of compression fractures in these patients by a mean of 47.6% (P < .001), with only 15% showing no improvement. These figures compare favorably with published results for kyphoplasty (47% mean improvement in height in 70% of fractures; no improvement in 30% of fractures). In addition, we achieved a mean improvement in kyphosis angle of 6 degrees and an improvement in the wedge angle of 3.5 degrees (as compared with published results for kyphoplasty of 7.4 and 4.3 degrees , respectively; P < .001). CONCLUSION Percutaneous vertebroplasty should be viewed not only as a pain-relieving procedure, but also an effective method for improving vertebral body height, kyphosis angle, and wedge angle.