A 55-y-old patient with multiple myeloma presented for restaging after chemotherapy and radiation. The patient had undergone vertebroplasty of multiple thoracic vertebrae because of painful compression fractures. The 18F-FDG PET images showed increased activity at the T8 and T10-T12 vertebral bodies. Comparison of the attenuation-corrected and non-attenuation-corrected images demonstrated that ...

Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-producing bronchial carcinoid tumours are a rare cause of Cushing's syndrome. Cushing's syndrome is frequently complicated by osteoporosis, which results in an increased tendency for the development of vertebral compression fractures. Percutaneous vertebroplasty has been shown to be an effective treatment option in the setting of painful osteoporotic compressi...

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 AND PURPOSE Little is known about the long-term clinical outcomes of sacroplasty, a relatively new minimally invasive percutaneous procedure for the treatment of sacral insufficiency fractures. The first purpose of the present study, therefore, was to investigate the effects of sacroplasty on pain, mobility, and activities of daily living (ADLs). A second purpose was to compare clini...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Percutaneous vertebroplasty is known for its pain-relieving effect. Our purpose was to evaluate its effect on the kyphosis angle, wedge angle, and height of the fractured vertebral body. METHODS We reviewed digital radiographs of 73 vertebral bodies in 53 patients before and after vertebroplasty. We measured the spinal kyphosis angle and the wedge angle of the fractured...

INTRODUCTION: There has been a dramatic rise in the use of vertebroplasty for the treatment of vertebral compression fractures over the last decade. There are estimated to be over 700,000 such fractures each year in the United States alone, many of which lead to severe pain and a significant reduction in quality of life [1]. In the short term, vertebroplasty has been shown to reduce the pain an...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although abundant literature has reported success with vertebroplasty for the treatment of painful compression fractures, none has accounted for a potential expectation-related placebo effect. We report the results of vertebroplasty for painful vertebral body compression fractures in a small cohort of patients with dementia with the assumption that this patient subgroup i...

BACKGROUND We wanted to investigate the leading cause of failed vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty. METHODS Twelve patients (10 females and 2 males) who underwent revision surgery after vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty were included. In 4 cases, vertebroplasty was done for two or more levels. Six cases with kyphoplasty were included. Through the retrospective review of the radiographic studies and me...

The major technical drawback of percutaneous vertebroplasty is the potential for neural compromise from leakage of polymethylmethaorylate into epidural or perivertebral veins. We have combined the procedure of intrathecal injection of contrast medium with vertebroplasty to better delineate spinal canal encroachment during injection when the posterior vertebral wall is compromised by myeloma.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Patients successfully treated with vertebroplasty often return with new pain caused by a new vertebral body fracture. The new fractures often are adjacent to the vertebral bodies that were initially treated. In our clinical work, we have observed that cement leakage into the disk increases the risk of new fracture of the adjacent vertebral body. This study analyzed the ri...