Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are associated with pain and severe disability in a high percentage of patients. Vertebroplasty has become the treatment of choice to alleviate pain in those patients who have not responded to medical treatment.Although several case series and non-randomized studies have shown the effectiveness of vertebroplasty in alleviating pain secondary to osteoporotic vertebral fractures, the long-term effect of this treatment has not been compared to standard medical treatment in a randomized study.~In our study we have analyzed the long-term effect of vertebroplasty in terms of quality of life in patients with painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures, randomizing them into two arms: percutaneous vertebroplasty or conventional medical treatment.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether percutaneous vertebroplasty is able to improve long-term quality of life in patients with pain secondary to osteoporotic vertebral fractures, compared to conventional medical treatment.