Percutaneous Vertebroplasty Reduced the Adjacent Intervertebral Bridging Ossification Rates in Patients With...

Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) is a commonly used minimally invasive procedure in thoracolumbar osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs) patients. At present, there are no relevant studies on the effects of PVP on the occurrence of adjacent intervertebral bridging ossification.

We reviewed clinical data of patients with thoracolumbar OVCFs treated in our hospital between January 2018 and December 2022. Patients were divided into bridging ossification and non-bridging ossification groups according to whether or not intervertebral bridging ossification had occurred. The clinical data collected included whether PVP surgery was performed, age, sex, body mass index, Hounsfield unit value, bone metabolism indexes, endplate fracture types, thoracic kyphosis, thoracolumbar kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, local kyphosis, Gardner angle, Cobb angle, the ratio of posterior border height (PBH) to anterior border height (ABH), and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores. We investigated the differences in these parameters and analyzed their relationship with intervertebral bridging ossification.

A total of 183 eligible patients were included in the study. The highest rate of intervertebral bridging ossification was observed at T12 level (55.7%). Ninety patients developed adjacent intervertebral bridging ossification (63 patients received conservative treatment and 27 patients underwent PVP surgery). The rate of intervertebral bridging ossification reduced in PVP patients (p < 0.001). There were significant differences in age, HU value, local kyphosis, Gardner angle and PBH/ABH between the bridging and non-bridging groups (p < 0.05). At 12 months post-treatment, there were no significant differences in VAS and ODI scores between patients with bridging ossification in the conservative treatment group and those in the PVP group (p > 0.05). Conservatively managed patients who developed intervertebral bridging ossification had significantly better VAS and ODI scores than those who did not (p < 0.05).

PVP reduced the adjacent intervertebral bridging ossification rates in thoracolumbar OVCFs patients. This may be related to the improvement in local mechanical stability. Other influencing factors included age, Hounsfield unit value, Gardner angle, local kyphosis, and PBH/ABH.