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BACKGROUND: To assess the safety and clinical outcomes of bipolar radiofrequency ablation (RFA) assisted vertebroplasty (VP) and osteoplasty (OP) in pathological and insufficiency fractures. The insufficiency fractures were in patients who sustained demineralization secondary to cancer treatment. METHODS: Patients referred for symptomatic malignant or insufficiency fractures for VP or OP from January 2011 to May 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Bipolar RFA was performed (Osteocool RF ablation system, Baylis Medical) reaching a constant temperature of 70 ℃ over 7 to 15 minutes followed by cement injection. Clinical outcomes were evaluated by review of the electronic medical record (EMR). Radiological outcomes were assessed with CT. Pre and post procedural pain scores were also documented for the RFA subset, primarily to see if there were any adverse effects when using RFA on pain relief. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients in the study were treated with the RFA assisted technique. These contributed to 4 OPs and 35 VP levels. Of these four VP levels were insufficiency fractures. All were technically successful without morbidity or mortality. Fifty-six patients were treated with a non RFA assisted technique. All these were VPs and 142 levels were treated in total. Two levels in this subset were insufficiency fractures. All were technically successful without morbidity or mortality. There was a significantly reduced rate of posterior and venous cement leaks when RFA was used prior to VP. There was no difference in the rate of leakage into the disc spaces when comparing RFA assisted to the conventional technique. Pain scores in the RFA assisted group decreased significantly post procedure with no unanticipated neuropathic events. CONCLUSIONS: RFA assisted VP and OP using a bipolar device is safe and allows for controlled injection of cement into a preformed thermal cavity with a significant decrease in venous and posterior cement leaks. Rate of cement leakage into the disc spaces was unaffected.
David et al. (Fri,) studied this question.