PMMA bone cement viscosity in vertebroplasty.

Percutaneous VertebroPlasty (PVP), the percutaneous injection of acrylic bone cement in a fractured vertebral body, is nowadays a generally accepted treatment modality in painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. Methods to reduce complications, like cement leakage and its sequelae such as pulmonary cement emboli and new vertebral fractures, should be explored in order to improve patient safety. Viscosity of bone cement is one crucial parameters which influence the occurrence of cement leakage, the interdigitation of the bone cement with the trabecular bone and the spatial distribution of the cement inside the fractured vertebral body, and hence the clinical outcome after PVP. To what extent, however, is currently unknown and will be determined in this single-blinded, randomized, controlled trial comparing PVP with either a low or a high viscosity bone cement in the treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures.

High viscosity PMMA bone cement reduces the occurrence of cement leakage comprared to low viscosity PMMA bone cement.

Preoperative, 1, 4, 12, 26, 52 and 104 weeks.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty with either high or low viscosity PMMA bone cement.