Last Updated: 2009-10-09 12:00:24 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Balloon kyphoplasty provides pain relief and functional improvement in patients with malignant spinal fractures, say researchers from Spain in the September 9th BMC Palliative Care.

Balloon kyphoplasty is performed percutaneously in an effort to relieve pain, restore vertebral height, and reduce biomechanical alterations of the spine caused by fractures, the authors explain.

Dr. Carmen Bouza and colleagues from Instituto de Salud Carlos III in Madrid performed a meta-analysis of 7 published reports describing the use of balloon kyphoplasty in 306 patients with malignant spinal fractures.

Treatment reduced mean pain scores both in the postoperative period and at the end of follow-up, the authors report.

Oswestry Disability Index scores showed a significant decrease in impairment and improvement in functional capacity after treatment in all 4 studies that measured it, and the improvements were sustained over the follow-up period.

Balloon kyphoplasty effectively improved the preexisting kyphotic deformity, the researchers note, reducing the absolute Cobb angle value and increasing the vertebral height.

There were 41 cement leakages associated with balloon kyphoplasty, representing approximately 6% of the levels treated, and the overall rate of new fractures was close to 10% (12.4% in patients with myeloma; 7.9% in patients with metastasis).

There were no deaths within 30 days of balloon kyphoplasty, the investigators say, although a small number of patients experienced clinical complications.

"Mention should be made (of) the fact that, at this time, there is an evident lack of studies comparing balloon kyphoplasty with other interventions, both invasive and noninvasive," the authors add. Two studies did compare kyphoplasty with vertebroplasty, and in these two, pain relief was similar but balloon kyphoplasty was associated with a lower cement leakage rate.

BMC Palliative Care 2009;8:12.