Researchers in the department of orthopedic surgery at The Johns Hopkins University/Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore recently published an article examining the survival and morbidity after treatment for vertebral compression fractures among Medicare patients in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
The researchers identified 68,752 patients who were treatment with vertebroplasty, kyphoplasty or nonoperative treatment in the 2006 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review File database. Around 55 percent underwent nonoperative treatment, 11.2 percent underwent vertebroplasty and 33.2 percent underwent kyphoplasty.
The researchers found survival rate was:
• 42.3 percent for nonoperative treatment
• 49.7 percent for vertebroplasty
• 59.9 percent for kyphoplasty
The researchers also found that the adjusted risk of death was 20 percent lower for the kyphoplasty group than the vertebroplasty group and patients in the kyphoplasty group had the shortest hospital stays, but the highest hospital charges. Kyphoplasty patients were also least likely to have had pneumonia and decubitus ulcers during index hospitalization and the following six months.
However, vertebroplasty was less likely to result in subsequent augmentation than kyphoplasty.
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