2009 A randomized trial of vertebroplasty for painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures

Description: We performed a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which participants with one or two painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures that were of less than 12 months' duration and unhealed, as confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging, were randomly assigned to undergo vertebroplasty or a sham procedure.
Conclusions We found no beneficial effect of vertebroplasty as compared with a sham procedure in patients with painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures, at 1 week or at 1, 3, or 6 months after treatment.
A randomized trial of vertebroplasty for painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Buchbinder R, Osborne RH, Ebeling PR, Wark JD, Mitchell P, Wriedt C, Graves S, Staples MP, Murphy B. N Engl J Med. 2009 Aug 6;361(6):557-68. (full text)