What is the new bone capsule-filled vertebroplasty?

Percutaneous percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) was first used to treat metastases and hemangiomas []. In the progress of an aging society, osteoporotic thoracolumbar vertebral compression fractures are gradually becoming the best indication for this technique []. After passing through the percutaneous puncture through the pedicle to the vertebral body, direct high-pressure injection of bone cement into the spaceless vertebral body is performed to achieve strengthening and stabilization of the vertebral body, thus effectively reducing the patient’s pain symptoms. However, with the widespread application, there have been related complications and even serious complications reported one after another, among which, bone cement leakage is of concern due to the possibility of spinal nerve injury. The rate of cement leakage in vertebroplasty has been reported in the literature to range from 11% to 76%, with a potential risk of pulmonary embolism due in part to leakage into the venous system. Percutaneous kyphoplastyPKP is a sexual technique developed based on traditional vertebroplasty, which aims to maximize correction of posterior vertebral deformity and enable infusion of bone cement at low pressure, thereby reducing the rate of cement leakage. Although PKP has a significantly lower rate of bone cement leakage compared to PVP, foreign reports still show a 9% to 25% leakage rate when treating vertebral compression fractures with PKP []. The new bone capsule-filled vertebroplasty (Vesselplasty) technique was first proposed and designed by A-SPINE in Taiwan in 2007, and was introduced into China in 2013 after being officially certified by the Food and Drug Administration of China following experiments in several large hospitals abroad. The Vessel-X capsular bag filler is made of interlocking polymer materials woven into a mesh bag structure, which can be expanded by directly filling with viscous bone cement, and its dense polymer mesh structure can wrap most of the bone cement, and allow a small amount of bone cement to seep outside the mesh layer and couple with bone tissue; moreover, the shape of the bag is relatively fixed after expansion, which can better Moreover, the shape of the capsule is relatively fixed after expansion, which can better control the distribution of bone cement and eliminate the leakage of bone cement, which greatly improves the safety of the surgery. Compared with the previous minimally invasive procedures of PKP and PVP for thoracolumbar fractures, the most important feature of the new Vesselplasty is that the bag for expansion remains in the injured vertebral body and the bone cement is injected directly into the bag, thus eliminating the possibility of bone cement leakage or even serious complications such as lower limb paralysis. Searching the literature, Professor Zheng Zhaomin of the Department of Spine Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, used the Vesselplasty technique in 2007 to treat three fresh osteoporotic subvertebral compression fractures under the “off-label” scenario with good clinical results and no serious complications. Zhang JD of the 306th Hospital of the PLA reported in 2012 that 13 patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures were treated with the self-developed preparation of the capsular bag technique from 2007 to 2012 with good clinical results and no serious complications such as bone cement leakage, nerve injury and pulmonary embolism, confirming the safety and effectiveness of the capsular bag technique. zhou J reported in 2013 that Crosstrees pod kyphoplasty capsular bag technique for the treatment of 15 patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures with good postoperative pain relief and no cement leakage, which was proven to be safe and effective . However, the above-mentioned capsular bag technique did not apply and pass the certification of the State Food and Drug Administration for other reasons, so it could not be widely carried out in China, and even if it was applied, it could only be used in the “off-label” situation, which limited the further development of the technique. In addition, there are no reports of other similar technologies being used in China. At present, the orthopedic department of Tong Ren Hospital has already carried out this technology.