Improvement in respiratory function by percutaneous vertebroplasty.
BACKGROUND
Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) improves back pain and corrects spinal misalignment to some extent, and thus may improve respiratory function.


OBJECTIVE
To retrospectively investigate changes in respiratory function after PVP.


METHODS
41 patients (mean age 72.0 years, range 59-86 years; 39 women, two men) who had undergone PVP for vertebral compression fractures (37 thoracic vertebral bodies [Th6-Th12] and 50 lumbar vertebral bodies [L1-L5]) caused by osteoporosis visited our hospital for follow-up consultation between January and June 2005. At this follow-up consultation, respiratory function testing, including percent forced vital capacity (FVC%) and percent forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)%), was performed. We retrospectively compared these values with those taken before PVP using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test.


RESULTS
FVC% was 85.2+/-30.3% before PVP and 91.5+/-16.8% at follow-up (mean 10 months after PVP), which represented a significant difference (P<0.003). No significant difference in FEV(1)% was detected. Regarding the number of treatment levels, that is, single vertebroplasty versus multiple vertebroplasty, no significant difference in improvement of FVC% was confirmed (P=0.1). FVC% was abnormally low (<or=79%) before PVP in 16 patients and improved to within normal range postoperatively in six of these patients (38%).


CONCLUSIONS
PVP improves preoperatively decreased lung function, but this improvement takes time.
Department of Radiology, Kansai Medical University Hirakata Hospital, Osaka, Japan.
N
N
Tanigawa
S
S
Kariya
H
H
Kojima
A
A
Komemushi
Y
Y
Shomura
T
T
Tokuda
Y
Y
Ueno
S
S
Kuwata
A
A
Fujita
J
J
Terada
S
S
Sawada
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal / Q000379:methods; D050815:Fractures, Compression / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery*; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000150:complications; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D054854:Vertebroplasty / Q000379:methods*