Abstract
Background: Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) improves back pain and corrects spinal misalignment to some extent, and thus may improve respiratory function.
Purpose: To retrospectively investigate changes in respiratory function after PVP.
Material and Methods: 41 patients (mean age 72.0 years, range 59–86 years; 39 women, two men) who had undergone PVP for vertebral compression fractures (37 thoracic vertebral bodies [Th6–Th12] and 50 lumbar vertebral bodies [L1–L5]) caused by osteoporosis visited our hospital for follow-up consultation between January and June 2005. At this follow-up consultation, respiratory function testing, including percent forced vital capacity (FVC%) and percent forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1%), was performed. We retrospectively compared these values with those taken before PVP using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Results: FVC% was 85.2±30.3% before PVP and 91.5±16.8% at follow-up (mean 10 months after PVP), which represented a significant difference (P<0.003). No significant difference in FEV1% was detected. Regarding the number of treatment levels, that is, single vertebroplasty versus multiple vertebroplasty, no significant difference in improvement of FVC% was confirmed (P=0.1). FVC% was abnormally low (≤79%) before PVP in 16 patients and improved to within normal range postoperatively in six of these patients (38%).
Conclusion: PVP improves preoperatively decreased lung function, but this improvement takes time.