Vertebral augmentation with spinal implants: third-generation vertebroplasty.

This article is to review the different types of vertebral augmentation implants recently becoming available for the treatment of benign and malignant spinal compression fractures. After a detailed description of the augmentation implants, we review the available clinical data. We will conclude with a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of vertebral implants and how they can affect the future treatment options of compression fractures.

Spine Intervention-An Update on Injectable Biomaterials.

Back pain is the second most common reason for primary-care physician visits after the common cold. New understanding of the spine pathophysiology and biomechanics led to the development of novel injectable biomaterials to treat those pain generators. Although not all biomaterials are currently ready for common use, there is significant interest by the medical community to invest time, resources, and energy to optimize these injectables.

Multimodal analysis of in vivo resorbable CaP bone substitutes by combining histology, SEM, and microcomputed tomography data.

This study introduced and demonstrated a new method to investigate the repair process of bone defects using micro- and macroporous beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) substitutes. Specifically, the new method combined and aligned histology, SEM, and preimplantation microcomputed tomography (mCT) data to accurately characterize tissue phases found in biopsies, and thus better understand the bone repair process. The results included (a) the exact fraction of ceramic remnants (CR); (b) the fraction of ceramic resorbed and substituted by bone (CSB); and (c) the fraction of ceramic resorbed and not substituted by bone (CNSB).

A novel method for segmenting and aligning the pre- and post-implantation scaffolds of resorbable calcium-phosphate bone substitutes.

Unlabelled: Micro-computed tomography (microCT) is commonly used to characterize the three-dimensional structure of bone graft scaffolds before and after implantation in order to assess changes occurring during implantation. The accurate processing of the microCT datasets of explanted β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffolds poses significant challenges because of (a) the overlap in the grey values distribution of ceramic remnants, bone, and soft tissue, and of (b) the resorption of the bone substitute during the implantation. To address those challenges, this article introduces and rigorously validates a new processing technique to accurately distinguish these three phases found in the explanted β-TCP scaffolds.

Percutaneous Dorsal Instrumentation of Vertebral Burst Fractures: Value of Additional Percutaneous Intravertebral Reposition-Cadaver Study.

Purpose: The treatment of vertebral burst fractures is still controversial. The aim of the study is to evaluate the purpose of additional percutaneous intravertebral reduction when combined with dorsal instrumentation.

Methods: In this biomechanical cadaver study twenty-eight spine segments (T11-L3) were used (male donors, mean age 64.