Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty have become common surgical techniques for the treatment of vertebral compression fractures. Vertebroplasty involves the percutaneous injection of bone cement into the cancellous bone of a vertebral body with the goals of pain alleviation and preventing further loss of vertebral body height. Kyphoplasty utilizes an inflatable balloon to create a cavity for the cem...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) are being increasingly treated with minimally invasive bone augmentation techniques such as kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty. Both are reported to be an effective means of pain relief; however, there may be an increased risk of developing subsequent VCFs after such procedures. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare...

Several recent publications, including the article by Dublin et al in this issue of the AJNR, have reported restoration of height of fractured vertebral bodies treated with vertebroplasty (1, 2) and kyphoplasty (3, 4). From my own experience with the procedures and perusal of the literature, restoration of vertebral body height with vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty is not very dramatic. The measu...

BACKGROUND The treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures with transpedicular cement augmentation has grown significantly over the last 20 years. There is still uncertainty about long-term and midterm effects of polymethyl methacrylate in trabecular bone. Preservation of the trabecular structures, as well as interdigitation of the cement with the surrounding bone, therefo...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Although uncommon, symptomatic vertebral hemangiomas can be a painful condition limiting daily activities. Balloon kyphoplasty is a developing technique that has successfully been used in the treatment of vertebral hemangiomas as reported in a few publications. The aim of this paper is to describe 2 cases of painful vertebral hemangiomas effectively treated with percut...

Although percutaneous vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty have improved the management of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs), these techniques still suffer from inherent disadvantages and complications, such as cement leakage. This prospective pilot study evaluated the clinical outcomes of 15 OVCF patients treated with a new technique, the Crosstrees pod kyphoplasty (C-pod ...

BACKGROUND Burst fracture is a common thoracolumbar injury that is treated using posterior pedicle instrumentation and fusion combined with transpedicular intracorporeal grafting after reduction. In this study, we compared the outcome of these two techniques by using radiologic imaging and functional outcome. METHODS Sixty-one patients with acute thoracolumbar burst fracture were operated wit...

Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are relatively new minimally invasive methods to treat osteoporotic or pathologic vertebra fractures. Both technics are similar in principle whereas in kyphoplasty a baloon is introduced into the vertebra to restore the height loss. Currently there are severeral studies reporting the safety and efficacy of both methods and in this report technical nuances and evid...

Vertebral kyphoplasty is a procedure used for the treatment of compression fractures. While early randomized-controlled trials were equivocal regarding its benefits, more recent RCTs have shown favorable results for kyphoplasty with regard to pain relief, functional recovery, and health-care related quality of life compared to control patients. Risks of kyphoplasty include but are not limited t...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of balloon kyphoplasty for treating Kummel disease accompanying severe osteoporosis. METHODS Twelve patients with single-level Kummell disease accompanied by severe osteoporosis were enrolled in this investigation. After postural reduction for 1 or 2 days, balloon kyphoplasty was performed on the collapsed vertebrae. Clinical re...