Is There a Difference in Postoperative Outcomes Between Kyphoplasty and Vertebroplasty in the Management of Vertebral...

Cement augmentation using vertebroplasty (VP) or kyphoplasty (KP) can be employed to manage vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have disagreed about the superiority of one technique over the other. Therefore, a meta-analysis of RCTs is warranted.

PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and Google Scholar were searched for articles from database inception to July 15, 2024. The inclusion criteria consisted of English and non-English-language RCTs comparing KP to VP in the management of VCFs. The studied outcomes were the risks of cement leakage and adjacent vertebral fractures (AVFs), operative time, the postoperative local kyphotic angle, and postoperative back pain.

A total of 11 RCTs were included, comprising 1,190 patients, of whom 600 (50.4%) underwent KP and 590 (49.6%) underwent VP. We found no difference in the risk of cement leakage (risk ratio [RR], 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.68 to 1.69; p = 0.78) or AVFs (RR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.29 to 1.23; p = 0.16) between the 2 groups. With the inclusion of additional trials, the KP group had a lower risk of AVFs (RR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.98; p = 0.04). We found no difference in operative time (mean difference, 4.75 minutes; 95% CI, -7.34 to 16.84; p = 0.44) or postoperative pain (mean difference, -0.48; 95% CI, -1.91 to 0.95; p = 0.51) between the 2 groups. A lower postoperative kyphotic angle was observed in the KP group (standardized mean difference, -2.97; 95% CI, -5.62 to -0.32; p = 0.03).

This meta-analysis revealed that KP was associated with a better postoperative local kyphotic angle and a lower risk of AVFs, with no difference in postoperative pain or cement leakage, compared with VP.

Therapeutic Level I . See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.