Vertebral Augmentation: Fluoroscopy and CT

Osteoporosis, an age-related condition, is becoming a major public health problem. Vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) constitute the most frequent complication of osteoporosis. The pain and immobility caused by osteoporotic VCFs are linked to significant morbidities and impaired quality of life. Percutaneous techniques such as vertebroplasty and vertebral augmentation have emerged as viable treatments for acutely painful VCFs over the last several decades. Vertebroplasty (PV) and balloon kyphoplasty (KP) are minimally invasive vertebral augmentation procedures involving injection of polymethylmethacrylate cement under radiologic control into a fractured vertebral body. Vertebroplasty appears to offer a comparable rate of postoperative pain relief as kyphoplasty while using less bone cement, more often via a unilateral approach and without the attendant risk of adjacent level fracture.