Purpose: To evaluate the clinical efficacy, especially the pain reduction, of vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty in the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs).
Methods: Eighty-six patients with OVCFs were treated with vertebroplasty or balloon kyphoplasty. All patients were followed up for seven-36 months. Visual analog scale (VAS), vertebral height, and local kyphotic angle were evaluated at pre-operation, postoperation, and final follow-up.
Results: The VAS pain score decreased significantly after surgery in both kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty groups (p < 0.001), and the improvement of VAS score had no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.826). There was a significant difference in the improvement of vertebral height (p < 0.001) and local kyphotic angle (p < 0.001) between the two groups. Improvement of VAS score had no correlation with improvement of vertebral height (vertebroplasty: r = -0.029, p = 0.869; kyphoplasty: r = 0.175, p = 0.219) or local kyphotic angle (vertebroplasty: r = 0.159, p = 0.361; kyphoplasty: r = 0.144, p = 0.312) in either group.
Conclusion: Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are effective procedures for the reduction of pain in OVCFs, and they have the same efficient effect on pain reduction. Correction of vertebral height and local kyphosis may have minimal effect on pain reduction.