Technical Modification of Vertebroplasty

Sung, Dong Yeun; Kwon, Young Joon

Abstract

One of the main restrictions of vertebroplasty is the high injection pressure that is required to inject sufficient cement into a fractured vertebral body. Kyphoplasty can be used to reduce injection pressure by making a void with a balloon tamp. During vertebroplasty, serious complications such as pulmonary embolism and neurologic compression have been reported, which usually occur when uncontrolled excessive pressure is applied to inject bone cement. We devised a technique of making small voids and connections with the fracture gaps to reduce cement delivery pressure during vertebroplasty that involves a simple modification of the conventional technique. The modification of vertebroplasty using a curved probe may be used to control the cement injection easily during the procedures and minimize complications related to cement leakage.