Percutaneous Vertebroplasty

Few would argue that “percutaneous vertebroplasty” announced its birth and found its voice on the pages of the American Journal of Neuroradiology. No other publication has been more crucial to the discussion, dissection, and dissemination of technical and clinical research as it relates to this procedure, than the AJNR.

It was a pleasure for us to review and compile this “Special Collection” bibliography from the extensive list of papers that have been published over the past 15 years. The wealth of information within the AJNR archives was both exhilarating and frustrating. We marveled at the academic riches rediscovered but lamented the reality that the list had to have limits. So we selected articles based upon their technical value, advancement of the procedure with respect to safety and efficacy, and clinical evaluations of large, longitudinal series. We would like to thank all the authors who have contributed to the entire body of vertebroplasty literature in the AJNR and regret that we could not include more articles.

Recently, vertebroplasty has come under microscopic scrutiny after the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of 2 prospective, randomized trials. The INVEST trial concluded that vertebroplasty was as efficacious as a local anesthetic injection in alleviating back pain. The results were surprising and may leave the reader wondering if this “Special Collection” is now obsolete. We say, an emphatic “no.” The sheer number of positive outcomes in patients debilitated by their disease, catalogued on the pages you are about to read, stand as testimony to the benefits of vertebroplasty over best medical therapy. We encourage the continued examination of the advantages of vertebroplasty in ways that will stand the most rigorous scrutiny.

We would like to thank Mauricio Castillo, Editor-in-Chief of the AJNR, for inviting us to compile this Special Collection on percutaneous vertebroplasty. It was truly a labor of love for both of us, and a pleasant stroll down memory lane.

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