Vertebroplasty in the surgical treatment of spinal metastatic tumors

For patients with tumors, spinal metastases are a catastrophic complication, with pain, vertebral fractures and neurological dysfunction severely affecting patients’ quality of life and requiring both pharmacological and surgical treatment. Spinal metastases are the most common spinal tumor, with an estimated incidence 20 times higher than that of primary bone tumors. The clinical characteristics of spinal metastases are as follows: the incidence of metastatic tumors is more common in men than in women, about 3:1; the primary tumor cannot be detected in about 1/3 of patients; the spine, pelvis, and long bone epiphysis are the preferred sites of metastatic cancer, which are often multiple and rarely single. The literature shows that breast and lung are the most common primary sites of spinal metastases, and thoracic spine is the most common site of metastases, followed by lumbar spine and cervical spine. Lu Qinglin, Department of Orthopedics, Shandong Qianfo Mountain Hospital, Shandong Province, China Spinal metastases cause pain, neurological dysfunction, and mechanical instability of the spine due to vertebral fractures. The improvement of patients’ quality of life depends on obtaining stability of the spine to reduce pain and prevent deterioration of neurological function. Percutaneous vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that is minimally invasive, easily recoverable, reduces or eliminates pain, and obtains pain relief 24-48 hours postoperatively in approximately 80% of patients; increases vertebral body strength to prevent collapse or aggravation of collapse; restores the height of the vertebral body as much as possible and corrects the kyphosis deformity; stabilizes the spine and kills the tumor. It is very important to assess the neurological functional status of the patient. For those whose neurological symptoms appear for a short time and progress rapidly, surgery is first considered. Surgical decompression and internal fixation + vertebroplasty is preferred, which can release spinal cord compression, increase the strength of the anterior spinal column to correct the retroconvex deformity, and have a certain effect of killing the tumor, and is less traumatic and less bleeding, which is suitable for patients with poor tolerance.