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Previous Volume 361:619-621 August 6, 2009 Number 6 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Worldwide there are approximately 1.4 million persons with vertebral compression fractures.¹ In the United States, there are approximately 750,000; only one third receive treatment.² Prevalence estimates are imprecise because of heterogeneity in how vertebral fracture is defined.³ Annualized direct care expenditures for osteoporotic fractures in the United States were estimated to range from $12 billion to $18 billion in 2002.²

Several treatments (e.g., bed rest, bracing, and pain medications) have been designed to foster pain relief and allow for increased activities. Percutaneous vertebroplasty — the injection of polymethylmethacrylate directly into the vertebral compression fracture — has emerged as a treatment . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the Department of Orthopaedics, Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, NH.

Related Letters:

Trials of Vertebroplasty for Vertebral Fractures
Clark W., Lyon S., Burnes J., Baerlocher M. O., Munk P. L., Liu D. M., Lotz J. C., Grey A., Bolland M., Buchbinder R., Osborne R., Staples M., Kallmes D. F., Heagerty P. J., Jarvik J. G., Weinstein J. N.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2009; 361:2097-2100, Nov 19, 2009. Correspondence

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• Noonan, P. (2009). Randomized Vertebroplasty Trials: Bad News or Sham News?. Am. J. Neuroradiol. 30: 1808-1809 [Full Text]  
• Andrews, N. A. (2009). The Future of Vertebroplasty: Are Randomized Controlled Trials, or Clinical Experience, the More Appropriate Guide?. IBMS BoneKEy 6: 351-356 [Full Text]  
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