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Background: Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) and percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) could give rise to excellent outcomes and significant improvements in pain, analgesic requirements, function, cost, and incidence of serious complications for thoracolumbar osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). But some studies showed the recurrent fracture of a previously operated vertebra or adjacent vertebral fracture after PVP or PKP. The purpose of this study was to compare minimally invasive pedicle screw fixation (MIPS) and PVP with PVP to evaluate its feasibility and safety for treating acute thoracolumbar osteoporotic VCF and preventing the secondary VCF after PVP., Methods: Sixty-eight patients with a mean age of 74.5 years (ranging 65 ~ 87 years), who sustained thoracic or lumbar fresh osteoporotic VCFs without neurologic deficits underwent the procedure of PVP (group 1, n = 37) or MIPS combined with PVP (group 2, n = 31). Visual analog scale pain scores (VAS) were recorded and Cobb angles, central and anterior vertebral body height were measured on the lateral radiographs before surgery and immediately, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after surgery., Results: The patients were followed for an average of 27 months (ranging 24-32 months). The VAS significantly decreased after surgery in both groups (P < 0.005). The central and anterior vertebral body height significantly increased (P < 0.005), and the Cobb angle significantly decreased (P < 0.05) immediately after surgery in both groups. No significant changes in both the Cobb angle correction and the vertebral body height gains obtained were observed at the end of the follow-up period in group 2. But the Cobb angle significantly increased (P < 0.005), and the central and anterior vertebral body height significantly decreased (P < 0.005) 2 years after surgery compared with those immediately after surgery in group 1, and there were five patients with new fracture of operated vertebrae and nine cases with fracture of adjacent vertebrae., Conclusions: MIPS combined with PVP is a good choice for the treatment of acute thoracolumbar osteoporotic VCF, which can prevent secondary VCF after PVP.

Object: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and safety of minimally invasive pedicle screw fixation combined with percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) for treating acute thoracolumbar osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (VCF) and preventing secondary VCF after PVP., Methods: Twenty patients with a mean age of 73.6 years (range 65-85 years) who sustained fresh thoracic or lumbar osteoporotic VCFs without neurological deficits underwent minimally invasive pedicle screw fixation combined with PVP. Visual analog scale pain scores were recorded, and the Cobb angles and the central and anterior vertebral body (VB) heights were measured on the lateral radiographs before surgery and immediately, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after surgery., Results: The patients were followed up for an average of 26 months (range 24-30 months) after sugery. The visual analog scale score was found to be significantly decreased; from 7.3 ± 1.3 before surgery to 1.2 ± 0.7 immediately after surgery and to 0.7 ± 0.7 (p < 0.001) at the end of follow-up. The Cobb angle was 17.0° ± 4.3° before surgery and 6.4° ± 3.6° immediately after surgery. The central VB height that was 44.5% ± 7.6% before surgery increased to 74.6% ± 6.4% of the estimated intact central height immediately after surgery (p < 0.001). The anterior VB height increased from 50.7% ± 7.4% before surgery to 82.5% ± 6.7% of the estimated intact anterior height immediately after surgery (p < 0.001). There were no significant changes in the results obtained over the follow-up time period. There was no occurrence of new fracture in surgically treated or adjacent vertebrae in these patients., Conclusions: Minimally invasive pedicle screw fixation combined with PVP is a good choice for the treatment of acute thoracolumbar osteoporotic VCF and can prevent the occurrence of new VCFs after PVP.

This clinical practice guideline is based on a series of systematic reviews of published studies on the treatment of symptomatic osteoporotic spinal compression fractures. Of 11 recommendations, one is strong; one, moderate; three, weak; and six, inconclusive. The strong recommendation is against the use of vertebroplasty to treat the fractures; the moderate recommendation is for the use of calcitonin for 4 weeks following the onset of fracture. The weak recommendations address the use of ibandronate and strontium ranelate to prevent additional symptomatic fractures, the use of L2 nerve root blocks to treat the pain associated with L3 or L4 fractures, and the use of kyphoplasty to treat symptomatic fractures in patients who are neurologically intact.

Operative treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures or fracture dislocations is a relatively modern development. Anterior decompression and stabilization play a significant role in the treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures. This article reviews the clinical indications and describes a one-staged operative technique for anterior instrumentation following anterior decompression.