CT-guided spinal interventions: Vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty

Abstract

Vertebral body fractures are one of the main causes for severe debilitating back pain causing a reduction of life quality, physical function and survival (Blasco et al. 2012). A vast majority of the vertebral body fractures is caused by an underlying osteoporosis. Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PV)/kyphoplasty (PK) are (if performed by an interventional radiologist) minimally invasive treatments for painful vertebral body fractures using bone cement to strengthen a fractured vertebral body and potentially restore the height of the fractured vertebral body and for pain relief. The first percutaneous vertebroplasty (PV) was performed in the early 1980s by the interventional neuroradiologists Galibert and Deramond and reported first in the literature for the treatment of a painful aggressive haemangioma of a vertebral body (Galibert and Deramond 1990). Since then, this technique has gained wide acceptance all over Europe and worldwide as a treatment option for patients suffering from otherwise intractable pain caused by osteoporotic fractures of the vertebral column (Hoffmann et al. 2003; De Leacy 2016).