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[Docgeorge]

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Whats the name of the porcedure the IR guys do when they inject a Vertebral body with somekind of epoxy to prevent furter compression and ablate the pain.

 

[Vriesea]

Vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty. Kyphoplasty attempts to restore normal vertebral body height with balloon inflation prior to "cement" injection where vertebroplasty is just injection of the material.

 

[Docgeorge]

Thank you very much.

 

[JudoKing01]

Orthopods do it too. There's a guy here that does them sometimes. It takes him forever.

 

[Vriesea]

Orthopods do it too. There's a guy here that does them sometimes. It takes him forever.

Forever, really?? The ORS I work with has them out of the OR less than an hour from when they come in, and thats for bilateral balloon reduction. Then the kyphon rep takes us out for dinner.

 

[Docxter]

Forever, really?? The ORS I work with has them out of the OR less than an hour from when they come in, and thats for bilateral balloon reduction. Then the kyphon rep takes us out for dinner.

Last week I did a 3 level case (T11, T12, L1 - one of them bilateral) with a neurointerventional attending on a 89 year old lady with severe osteoporosis and multiple fractures. Whole case start to finish about 30 minutes. And I was slowing him down. Granted he's one of the most experienced people in the world with over 1200 cases under his belt. I had actually timed him previously. For a plain vertebroplasty, he takes less than one minute from the time he punctures the skin with his lidocaine needle to the time he starts injecting cement. Even the company reps present couldn't believe their eyes. Everyone else I know takes 15 minutes to just ensure proper trocar position. Another one of our attendings takes about an hour for a single bilateral level.

 

[scrupulous79]

in my hospital some of the pain management anesthesiologists are doing kyphoplasty as well

 

[f_w]

I went to one of these vertebroplasty courses sponsored by the company that makes the kits. I expected to see IR's and orthopods there. But to my suprise, there were mainly GAS/pain management folks present (and even one IM/pain management).
It is all about patient access. They have the back-pain patients, so they try get their hands on the procedure to treat it. Most were ok, but some were really challenged with the threedimensional anatomy of the vertebral body as well as the proper usage of imaging equipment. (Some of them seemed to have the idea that this would be a great procedure to do using their C-arm in the office.) I hope they have a couple more cadavers to inject before they try their art on patients.