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Noted Vertebroplasty Expert Cites Concerns About Recently Published Study

DAYTON, Ohio, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ — A new study by Mayo Clinic researchers has given rise to more questions than answers about the effectiveness of vertebroplasty to treat osteoporotic spinal fractures.

Vertebroplasty is a widely used procedure in which medical cement is injected into vertebrae to relieve pain and improve mobility in patients who have osteoporotic fractures. This study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was the first of its kind, using a double-blinded research model to examine the impact of vertebroplasty. It was published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine to mixed reviews by the medical community.

“This was an extremely interesting study, but the results are far from conclusive due to several weaknesses in the method used. Additional research is definitely indicated,” said Dr. Mubin I. Syed, a neuroradiologist and diagnostic, interventional and vascular radiologist.

One major issue cited by Dr. Syed was the small size of the study group. To demonstrate statistical differences between groups requires that the research team enroll enough patients for the statistics to have meaning. The original group size for the Mayo Clinic study was to be 250 patients. Due to difficulties in recruiting participants, the final group size was reduced to 131 people, nearly half of the original design.

Josh Sandberg

Josh Sandberg is the President and CEO of Ortho Spine Partners and sits on several company and industry related Boards. He also is the Creator and Editor of OrthoSpineNews.

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One Comment

  1. I'm glad someone is questioning the validity of some of these findings. As we well know within the medical community, numbers can be dissected and reported on to support just about any hypothesis. So to think two studies can discredit years of positive peer-reviews and thousands of patient success stories is frightening.

    I certianly hope the American public and practicing physicians dig deeper, listen more closely and critically examine the findings before writing off the healing effects of Vertebroplasty.

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