A Randomized Trial of Vertebroplasty for Osteoporotic Spinal Fractures

In this randomized trial involving patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures, patients who underwent vertebroplasty had improvements in pain and disability measures that were similar to those in patients who underwent a sham procedure. Patients who underwent vertebroplasty had improvements in pain and disability measures that were similar to those in patients who underwent a sham procedure. Spontaneous vertebral fractures are associated with pain, disability, and death in patients with osteoporosis. Percutaneous vertebroplasty, the injection of medical cement, or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), into the fractured vertebral body has gained widespread acceptance as an effective method of pain relief and has become routine therapy for osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Guidelines recommend vertebroplasty for fractures that have not responded to medical treatment. 1 Typically, the duration of such fractures ranges from several weeks to several months or longer for fractures that have not healed. Numerous case series and several small, unblinded, nonrandomized, controlled studies have suggested the effectiveness of vertebroplasty in relieving . . .