Percutaneous vertebroplasty as a treatment for painful osteoblastic metastatic spinal lesions.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) has been used widely to treat pain caused by osteolytic spinal lesions, whereas vertebroplasty for osteoblastic spinal lesions is less known. The purpose of this study is to describe PVP as a highly effective miniinvasive procedure to treat painful osteoblastic metastatic spinal lesions. Four patients with painful osteoblastic metastatic spinal lesions were treated by PVP in the authors' department, and immediately relief of pain was achieved in all of them. The findings from this study may encourage more studies of PVP in palliative treatment of patients with osteoblastic lesions.