Vertebroplasty 10 years clinical and radiological follow-up

Objectives - Ten years follow up of the first patients treated with percutaneous vertebroplasty Patient and methods - Eighteen patients were retrospectively reviewed having undergone vertebroplasty in our centre between 1989 and 1998 Eight were treated for angioma eight for osteoporotic compression and two followed for myeloma They all underwent clinical and radiological evaluation in 2007 (standard X rays CT scan and MRI) These examinations were compared to prior baseline pre and post therapeutic images Results - Radiological characteristic of cement remained unchanged in the tong term and there was no modification of anatomical structures in contact with it Even if the distribution of cement was asymmetrical there was no fracture of the treated vertebras at distance Degene rative changes of discs facing the vertebroplasty were not more pronounced than for distant discs We found no significant signal or density anomaly of disc in contact direct with cement 38 8% of the patients presented new fractures (n = 30) Seventy percent of the fractures were multiple and contiguous In the tong term all patients reported improvement of pain after the procedure Conclusion - In our series we found a good stability of treatment over time This study shows the long term safety of percutaneous acrylic vertebroplasty in particular harmlessness of cement for bone and discs in contact (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS All rights reserved