Thoracolumbar vertebral fracture incidents usually occur secondary to a high velocity trauma in young patients and to minor trauma or spontaneously in older people.Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are the most common osteoporotic fractures and affect one-fifth of the osteoporotic population.Percutaneous fixation by ‘vertebroplasty’ is a tempting alternative for open surgical management of these fractures.Despite discouraging initial results of early trials for vertebroplasty, cement augmentation proved its superiority for the treatment of symptomatic osteoporotic vertebral fracture when compared with optimal medical treatment.Early intervention is also gaining ground recently.Kyphoplasty has the advantage over vertebroplasty of reducing kyphosis and cement leak.Stentoplasty, a new variant of cement augmentation, is also showing promising outcomes.In this review, we describe the additional techniques of cement augmentation, stressing the important aspects for success, and recommend a thorough evaluation of thoracolumbar fractures in osteoporotic patients to select eligible patients that will benefit the most from percutaneous augmentation. A detailed treatment algorithm is then proposed.Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2017;2:293–299. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.2.160057

Burkholderia cepacia spondylodiscitis is a rare entity that has been reported in only four cases. We hereby report the case of a 43-year-old, previously healthy, woman who was found to have a B. cepacia spondylodiscitis after a cholecystectomy. She was treated with a three-month regimen of ceftazidime and ciprofloxacin with complete clinical, biological, and radiological remission.

Vertebral fragility fractures (VFF) constitutes a major complication of osteoporosis affecting the quality of patient life. Debates about diagnosis and therapeutic measures are still ongoing. VFF might be considered as an independent factor of severe osteoporosis. Magnetic resonance image can be a useful diagnostic tool by giving more information than simple X-ray regarding the severity of the fracture, the healing process, the neurological damage, and possible secondary metastasis. Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, even a conservative treatment, have been applied to treat such fractures; we will discuss each technique and to our belief, any technique used should take into consideration the restoration of the normal curvature of the spine.

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