Purpose
Vertebroplasty is an effective treatment for painful compression fractures refractory to conservative management. Since there are limited data regarding the survival characteristics of this patient population, we compared the survival of a treated to an untreated vertebral fracture cohort to determine if vertebroplasty affects mortality rates.
Materials and Methods
The survival of a treated cohort, comprising 524 vertebroplasty recipients with refractory osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures, was compared to a separate, historical cohort of 589 subjects with fractures not treated by vertebroplasty who were identified from the Rochester Epidemiology Project. Mortality was compared between cohorts using Cox proportional hazard models adjusting for age, gender, and Charlson indices of co-morbidity. Mortality was also correlated with pre-, peri-, and post-procedural clinical metrics (e.g., cement volume utilization, Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire score, analog pain scales, frequency of narcotic use, and improvements in mobility) within the treated cohort.
Results
Vertebroplasty recipients demonstrated 77% of the survival expected for individuals of similar age, ethnicity, and gender within the US population. When compared to individuals with both symptomatic and asymptomatic untreated vertebral fractures, vertebroplasty recipients retained a 17% greater mortality risk. However, when compared to symptomatic untreated vertebral fractures, vertebroplasty recipients had no increased mortality following adjustment for differences in age, sex and co-morbidity (HR 1.02; CI 0.82–1.25). In addition, no clinical metrics used to assess the efficacy of vertebroplasty were predictive of survival.
Conclusion
Vertebroplasty recipients have mortality rates similar to individuals with untreated symptomatic fractures but worse mortality compared to those with asymptomatic vertebral fractures.